1  '796085 


MOBILIZING  I] 
WO]          POWER   ! 


HARRIO' 


3LATCH 


• 


MOBILIZING 
WOMAN-POWER 


Jeanne  d'Arc, — the  spirit   of  the  women  of  the  Allies. 


MOBILIZING 
WOMAN-POWER 


BY 

HARRIOT  STANTON  BLATCH 

WITH  A  FOREWORD  BY 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


1918 

THE  WOMANS  PRESS 
NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1918.  by 

THE  NATIONAL  BOARD  OK  THE 

YOUNG  WOMEN'S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATIONS 

or  THE  UNITED  STATES  or  AMERICA 

600  Lexington  Avenue, 
New  York  City 


All  rights  reserved 


TO 

THE  ABLE  AND  DEVOTED  WOMEN 
OF  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  FRANCE 

Who  have  stood  behind  the  armies  of  the 
Allies  through  the  years  of  the  Great  War 
as  an  unswerving  second  line  of  defense 
against  an  onslaught  upon  the  liberty  and 
civilization  of  the  world,  I  dedicate  this 
volume. 

HARRIOT  STAHTOW  BLATCH 


1736085 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

FOREWORD  BY  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT   ...       5 

I    OUR  FOE .11 

II    WINNING  THE  WAR 22 

III  MOBILIZING  WOMEN  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN     .     36 

IV  MOBILIZING  WOMEN  IN  FRANCE     ...     60 
V    MOBILIZING  WOMEN  IN  GERMANY    ...     75 

VI  WOMEN  OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA    .     .     86 

VII    EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE 106 

VIII    POOLING  BRAINS 120 

IX    " BUSINESS  AS  USUAL" 135 

X  "As  MOTHER  USED  TO  Do"     ....  145 

XI    A  LAND  ARMY 164 

XII  WOMAN  's  PART  IN  SAVING  CIVILIZATION    .  176 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Jeanne  d'Arc — the  spirit  of  the  women  of  the 
Allies Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

They  wear  the  uniforms  of  the  Edinburgh  trams 
and  the  New  York  City  subway  and  trolley 
guards,  with  pride  and  purpose  ....  26 

Then — the  offered  service  of  the  Women's  Reserve 
Ambulance  Corps  in  England  was  spurned. 
Now — they  wear  shrapnel  helmets  while 
working  during  the  Zeppelin  raids  ...  42 

The  French  poilu  on  furlough  is  put  to  work 

harrowing 60 

Has  there  ever  been  anything  impossible  to 
French  women  since  the  time  of  Jeanne 
d'Arc?  The  fields  must  be  harrowed — they 
have  no  horses 68 

The  daily  round  in  the  Erie  Railroad  workshops  .  96 

In  the  well-lighted  factory  of  the  Briggs  and 
Stratton  Company,  Milwaukee,  the  girls  are 
comfortably  and  becomingly  garbed  for  work  108 

The  women  of  the  Motor  Corps  of  the  National 
League  for  "Woman's  Service  refuting  the 
traditions  that  women  have  neither  strength 
nor  endurance  .  128 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

Down  the  street  they  come,  beginning  their  pil- 
grimage of  alleviation  and  succor  on  the 
battlefields  of  France '.132 

How  can  business  be  "as  usual"  when  in  Paris 
there  are  about  1800  of  these  small  work- 
shops where  a  woman  dips  Bengal  Fire  and 
grenades  into  a  bath  of  paraffin !  .  .  .  .138 

Countess  de  Berkaim  and  her  canteen  in  the 
Gare  de  St.  Lazarre,  Paris 146 

An  agricultural  unit  in  the  uniform  approved 
by  the  Woman's  Land  Army  of  America  .  168 

A  useful  blending  of  Allied  women.  Miss  Kath- 
leen Burke  (Scotch)  exhibiting  the  X-ray 
ambulance  equipped  by  Mrs.  Ayrton  (Eng- 
lish) and  Madame  Curie  (French)  .  .  .  178 


FOREWORD 

It  is  a  real  pleasure  to  write  this  foreword 
to  the  book  which  Mrs.  Harriot  Stanton  Blatch 
dedicates  to  the  women  of  Great  Britain  and 
France;  to  the  women  who  through  the  years 
of  the  great  war  have  stood  as  the  second  line 
of  defense  against  the  German  horror  which 
menaces  the  liberty  and  civilization  of  the  en- 
tire world. 

There  could  be  no  more  timely  book.  Mrs. 
Blatch 's  aim  is  to  stir  the  women  of  this 
country  to  the  knowledge  that  this  is  their  war, 
and  also  to  make  all  our  people  feel  that  we, 
and  especially  our  government,  should  welcome 
the  service  of  women,  and  make  use  of  it  to  the 
utmost.  In  other  words,  the  appeal  of  Mrs. 
Blatch  is  essentially  an  appeal  for  service.  No 
one  has  more  vividly  realized  that  service  bene- 
fits the  one  who  serves  precisely  as  it  benefits 
the  one  who  is  served.  I  join  with  her  in  the 
appeal  that  the  women  shall  back  the  men  with 
service,  and  that  the  men  in  their  turn  shall 
frankly  and  eagerly  welcome  the  rendering  of 


6  FOKEWOED 

such  service  on  the  basis  of  service  by  equals 
with  equals  for  a  common  end. 

Mrs.  Blatch  makes  her  appeal  primarily  be- 
cause of  the  war  needs  of  the  moment.  But 
she  has  in  view  no  less  the  great  tasks  of  the 
future.  I  welcome  her  book  as  an  answer  to 
the  cry  that  the  admission  of  women  to  an  equal 
share  in  the  right  of  self  government  will  tend 
to  soften  the  body  politic.  Most  certainly  I 
will  ever  set  my  face  like  flint  against  any  un- 
healthy softening  of  our  civilization,  and  as  an 
answer  in  advance  to  hyper-criticism  I  explain 
that  I  do  not  mean  softness  in  the  sense  of 
tender-heartedness;  I  mean  the  softness  which 
extends  to  the  head  and  to  the  moral  fibre,  I 
mean  the  softness  which  manifests  itself  either 
in  unhealthy  sentimentality  or  in  a  materialism 
which  may  be  either  thoughtless  and  pleasure- 
loving  or  sordid  and  money-getting.  I  believe 
that  the  best  women,  when  thoroughly  aroused, 
and  when  the  right  appeal  is  made  to  them,  will 
offer  our  surest  means  of  resisting  this  un- 
healthy softening. 

No  man  who  is  not  blind  can  fail  to  see  that 
we  have  entered  a  new  day  in  the  great  epic 
march  of  the  ages.  For  good  or  for  evil  the 
old  days  have  passed;  and  it  rests  with  us,  the 
men  and  women  now  alive,  to  decide  whether 


FOEEWORD  7 

in  the  new  days  the  world  is  to  be  a  better  or 
a  worse  place  to  live  in,  for  our  descendants. 

In  this  new  world  women  are  to  stand  on  an 
equal  footing  with  men,  in  ways  and  to  an 
extent  never  hitherto  dreamed  of.  In  this 
country  they  are  on  the  eve  of  securing,  and 
in  much  of  the  country  have  already  secured, 
their  full  political  rights.  It  is  imperative  that 
they  should  understand,  exactly  as  it  is  impera- 
tive that  men  should  understand,  that  such 
rights  are  of  worse  than  no  avail,  unless  the 
will  for  the  performance  of  duty  goes  hand  in 
hand  with  the  acquirement  of  the  privilege. 

If  the  women  in  this  country  reinforce  the 
elements  that  tend  to  a  softening  of  the  moral 
fibre,  to  a  weakening  of  the  will,  and  unwill- 
ingness to  look  ahead  or  to  face  hardship  and 
labor  and  danger  for  a  high  ideal — then  all  of 
us  alike,  men  and  women,  will  suffer.  But  if 
they  show,  under  the  new  conditions,  the  will  to 
develop  strength,  and  the  high  idealism  and  the 
iron  resolution  which  under  less  favorable  cir- 
cumstances were  shown  by  the  women  of  the 
Eevolution  and  of  the  Civil  War,  then  our 
nation  has  before  it  a  career  of  greatness  never 
hitherto  equaled.  This  book  is  fundamentally 
an  appeal,  not  that  woman  shall  enjoy  any 
privilege  unearned,  but  that  hers  shall  be  the 


8  FOKEWOBD 

right  to  do  more  than  she  has  ever  yet  done, 
and  to  do  it  on  terms  of  self-respecting  partner- 
ship with  men.  Equality  of  right  does  not 
mean  identity  of  function;  but  it  does  neces- 
sarily imply  identity  of  purpose  in  the  perform- 
ance of  duty. 

Mrs.  Blatch  shows  why  every  woman  who 
inherits  the  womanly  virtues  of  the  past,  and 
who  has  grasped  the  ideal  of  the  added 
womanly  virtues  of  the  present  and  the  future, 
should  support  this  war  with  all  her  strength 
and  soul.  She  testifies  from  personal  knowl- 
edge to  the  hideous  brutalities  shown  toward 
women  and  children  by  the  Germany  of  to-day ; 
and  she  adds  the  fine  sentence:  "Women 
fight  for  a  place  in  the  sun  for  those  who  hold 
right  above  might. " 

She  shows  why  women  must  unstintedly  give 
their  labor  in  order  to  win  this  war;  and  why 
the  labor  of  the  women  must  be  used  to  back 
up  both  the  labor  and  the  fighting  work  of  the 
men,  for  the  fighting  men  leave  gaps  in  the 
labor  world  which  must  be  filled  by  the  work 
of  women.  She  says  in  another  sentence 
worth  remembering,  "The  man  behind  the 
counter  should  of  course  be  moved  to  a 
muscular  employment;  but  we  must  not  in- 


FOKEWORD  9 

terpret  his  dalliance  with  tapes  and  ribbons  as 
a  proof  of  a  superfluity  of  men." 

Particularly  valuable  is  her  description  of 
the  mobilization  of  women  in  Great  Britain  and 
France.  From  these  facts  she  draws  the  con- 
clusion as  to  America's  needs  along  this  very 
line.  She  paints  as  vividly  as  I  have  ever 
known  painted,  the  truth  as  to  why  it  is  a  merit 
that  women  should  be  forced  to  work,  a  merit 
that  every  one  should  be  forced  to  work!  It 
is  just  as  good  for  women  as  for  men  that  they 
should  have  to  use  body  and  mind,  that  they 
should  not  be  idlers.  As  she  puts  it,  "  Active 
mothers  insure  a  virile  race.  The  peaceful 
nation,  if  its  women  fall  victims  to  the  luxury 
which  rapidly  increasing  wealth  brings,  will  de- 
cay." "Man  power  must  give  itself  unreserv- 
edly at  the  front.  Woman  power  must  show 
not  only  eagerness  but  fitness  to  substitute  for 
man  power." 

I  commend  especially  the  chapter  contain- 
ing the  sentence,  "This  war  may  prove  to  us 
the  wisdom  and  economy  of  devoting  public 
funds  to  mothers  rather  than  to  creches  and 
juvenile  asylums;"  and  also  the  chapter  in 
which  the  author  tells  women  that  if  they  are 
merely  looking  for  a  soft  place  in  life  their 


10  FOKEWORD 

collective  demand  for  a  fair  field  and  no  favor 
will  be  wholly  ineffective.  The  doors  for  ser- 
vice now  stand  open,  and  it  rests  with  the 
women  themselves  to  say  whether  they  will 
enter  in ! 

The  last  chapter  is  itself  an  unconscious 
justification  of  woman's  right  to  a  share  in  the 
great  governmental  decisions  which  to-day  are 
vital.  No  statesman  or  publicist  could  set 
forth  more  clearly  than  Mrs.  Blatch  the  need 
of  winning  this  war,  in  order  to  prevent  either 
endless  and  ruinous  wars  in  the  future,  or  else 
a  world  despotism  which  would  mean  the 
atrophy  of  everything  that  really  tends  to  the 
elevation  of  mankind. 

Mrs.  Blatch  has  herself  rendered  a  very  real 
service  by  this  appeal  that  women  should  serve, 
and  that  men  should  let  them  serve. 


MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 


OUR  FOE 

THE  nations  in  which  women  have  influ- 
enced national  aims  face  the  nation  that 
glorifies  brute  force.  America  opposes  the 
exaltation  of  the  glittering  sword;  opposes  the 
determination  of  one  nation  to  dominate  the 
world;  opposes  the  claim  that  the  head  of  one 
ruling  family  is  the  direct  and  only  representa- 
tive of  the  Creator ;  and,  above  all,  America  op- 
poses the  idea  that  might  makes  right. 

Let  us  admit  the  full  weight  of  the  paradox 
that  a  people  in  the  name  of  peace  turns  to  force 
of  arms.  The  tragedy  for  us  lay  in  there  be- 
ing no  choice  of  ways,  since  pacific  groups  had 
failed  to  create  machinery  to  adjust  vital  in- 
ternational differences,  and  since  the  Allies  each 
in  turn,  we  the  last,  had  been  struck  by  a  foe 
determined  to  settle  disagreements  by  force. 

Never  did  a  nation  make  a  crusade  more  just 
11 


12       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

than  this  of  ours.  We  were  patient,  too  long 
patient,  perhaps,  with  challenges.  We  seek  no 
conquest.  We  fight  to  protect  the  freedom  of 
our  citizens.  On  America's  standard  is  writ- 
ten democracy,  on  that  of  Germany  autocracy. 
Without  reservation  women  can  give  their  all  to 
attain  our  end. 

There  may  be  a  cleavage  between  the  German 
people  and  the  ruling  class.  It  may  be  that  our 
foe  is  merely  the  military  caste,  though  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  that  we  have  the  entire  Ger- 
man nation  on  our  hands.  The  supremacy  of 
might  may  be  a  doctrine  merely  instilled  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  by  its  rulers.  Perhaps  the 
weed  is  not  indigenous,  but  it  flourishes,  never- 
theless. Babbits  did  not  belong  in  Australia, 
nor  pondweed  in  England,  but  there  they  are, 
and  dominating  the  situation.  Arrogance  of 
the  strong  towards  the  weak,  of  the  better 
placed  towards  the  less  well  placed,  is  part  of 
the  government  teaching  in  Germany.  The 
peasant  woman  harries  the  dog  that  strains  at 
the  market  cart,  her  husband  harries  her  as 
she  helps  the  cow  drag  the  plough,  the  petty 
officer  harries  the  peasant  when  he  is  a  raw  re- 
cruit, and  the  young  lieutenant  harries  the  petty 
officer,  and  so  it  goes  up  to  the  highest, — a  well- 
planned  system  on  the  part  of  the  superior  to 


OUR  FOE  13 

bring  the  inferior  to  a  high  point  of  material 
efficiency.  The  propelling  spirit  is  devotion  to 
the  Fatherland:  each  believes  himself  a  cog  in 
the  machine  chosen  of  God  to  achieve  His  pur- 
poses on  earth.  The  world  hears  of  the 
Kaiser's  "Ich  und  Gott,"  of  his  mailed  fist 
beating  down  his  enemies,  but  those  who  have 
lived  in  Germany  know  that  exactly  the  same 
spirit  reigns  in  every  class.  The  strong  in 
chastizing  his  inferior  has  the  conviction  that 
since  might  makes  right  he  is  the  direct  repre- 
sentative of  Deity  on  the  particular  occasion. 

The  overbearing  spirit  of  the  Prussian  mili- 
tary caste  has  drilled  a  race  to  worship  might ; 
men  are  overbearing  towards  women,  women 
towards  children,  and  the  laws  reflect  the  cruel- 
ties of  the  strong  towards  the  weak. 

As  the  recent  petition  of  German  suffragists 
to  the  Reichstag  states,  their  country  stands 
"in  the  lowest  rank  of  nations  as  regards 
women's  rights."  It  is  a  platitude  just  now 
worth  repeating  that  the  civilization  of  a  people 
is  indicated  by  the  position  accorded  to  its 
women.  On  that  head,  then,  the  Teutonic  Kul- 
tur  stands  challenged. 

An  English  friend  of  mine  threw  down  the 
gauntlet  thirty  years  ago.  She  had  married  a 
German  officer.  After  living  at  army  posts  all 


14       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

over  the  Empire,  she  declared,  "What  we  for- 
eigners take  as  simple  ohildlikeness  in  the  Ger- 
mans is  merely  lack  of  civilization."  This 
keen  analysis  came  from  a  woman  trained  as 
an  investigator,  and  equipped  with  perfect  com- 
mand of  the  language  of  her  adopted  country. 
"Lack  of  civilization," — perhaps  that  ex- 
plains my  having  seen  again  and  again  officers 
striking  the  soldiers  they  were  drilling,  and 
journeys  made  torture  through  witnessing 
slapping  and  brow-beating  of  children  by  their 
parents.  The  memory  of  a  father's  conduct 
towards  his  little  son  will  never  be  wiped  out. 
He  twisted  the  child 's  arm,  struck  him  savagely 
from  time  to  time,  and  for  no  reason  but  that 
the  child  did  not  sit  bolt  upright  and  keep 
absolutely  motionless.  The  witnesses  of  the 
brutality  smiled  approvingly  at  the  man,  and 
scowled  at  the  child.  My  own  protest  being 
met  with  amazed  silence  and  in  no  way  re- 
garded, I  left  the  compartment.  I  was  near 
Eisenach,  and  I  wished  some  good  fairy  would 
put  in  my  hand  that  inkpot  which  Luther  threw 
at  the  devil.  Severity  towards  children  is  the 
rule.  The  child  for  weal  or  woe  is  in  the  com- 
plete control  of  its  parents,  and  corporal  pun- 
ishment is  allowed  in  the  schools.  The  grim 
saying,  "Saure  Wochen,  frohe  Feste,"  seems  to 


OUR  FOE  15 

express  the  pedagogic  philosophy.  The  only 
trouble  is  that  nature  does  not  give  this  attitude 
her  sanction,  for  Germany  reveals  to  us  that 
figure,  the  most  pathetic  in  life,  the  child  suicide. 

The  man  responding  to  his  stern  upbringing 
is  in  turn  cruel  to  his  inferiors,  and  full  of 
subterfuge  in  dealing  with  equals.  He  is  at 
home  in  the  intrigues  which  have  startled  the 
world.  In  such  a  society  the  frank  and  gentle 
go  to  the  wall,  or — get  into  trouble  and 
emigrate.  We  have  profited — let  us  not  for- 
get it — by  the  plucky  German  immigrants  who 
threw  off  the  yoke,  and  who  now  have  the  sat- 
isfaction of  finding  themselves  fighting  shoulder 
to  shoulder  with  the  men  of  their  adopted  coun- 
try to  free  the  Fatherland  of  the  taskmaster. 

The  philosophy  of  might  quite  naturally  re- 
flects itself  in  the  education  of  girls.  Once 
when  I  visited  a  Hb'here  Tochter  Schule,  the 
principal  had  a  class  in  geometry  recite  for 
my  edification.  I  soon  saw  that  the  young  girl 
who  had  been  chosen  as  the  star  pupil  to  wrestle 
with  the  pons  asinorum  was  giving  an  exhibi- 
tion of  memorizing  and  not  of  mathematical 
reasoning.  I  asked  the  principal  if  my  surmise 
were  correct.  He  replied  without  hesitation, 
"Yes,  it  was  entirely  a  feat  in  memory. 
Females  have  only  low  reasoning. power."  I 


16       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

urged  that  if  this  were  so,  it  would  be  well  to 
train  the  faculty,  but  he  countered  with  the 
assertion,  "We  Germans  do  not  think  so. 
Women  are  happier  and  more  useful  without 
logic." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  surpass  in  its  subtle 
cruelty  the  etiquette  at  a  military  function. 
The  lieutenant  and  his  wife  come  early, — this 
is  expected  of  them.  For  a  few  moments  they 
play  the  role  of  honored  guests.  The  wife  is 
shown  by  her  hostess  to  the  sofa  and  is  seated 
there  as  a  mark  of  distinction.  Then  arrive 
the  captain  and  his  wife.  They  are  immedi- 
ately the  distinguished  guests.  The  wife  is 
shown  to  the  sofa  and  the  lieutenant's  little 
Frau  must  get  herself  out  of  the  way  as  best 
she  can. 

My  speculation,  often  indulged  in,  as  to  what 
would  happen  if  the  major's  wife  did  not  move 
from  the  sofa  when  the  colonel's  wife  ap- 
peared, ended  in  assurance  that  a  severe  punish- 
ment would  be  meted  out  to  her,  when  I  heard 
from  an  officer  the  story  of  the  way  his  regi- 
ment dealt  with  a  woman  who  ignored  another 
bit  of  military  etiquette.  A  debutant,  once 
honored  by  being  asked  to  dance  with  an  officer 
at  a  ball,  must  never,  it  seems,  demean  herself 
by  accepting  a  civilian  partner.  But  in  a  town 


OUR  FOE  17 

where  my  friend's  regiment  was  stationed  a 
very  pretty  and  popular  young  girl  who  had 
been  taken,  so  to  speak,  to  the  bosom  of  the 
regiment,  danced  one  night  at  the  Kurhaus  early 
in  the  summer  season  with  a  civilian,  distin- 
guished, undeniably,  but  unmistakably  civilian. 
The  officers  of  the  regiment  met,  weighed  the 
mighty  question  of  the  girl's  offense,  and  sol- 
emnly resolved  never  again  to  ask  the  culprit 
for  a  dance.  I  protested  at  the  cruelty  of  a 
body  of  men  deliberately  turning  a  pretty 
young  thing  into  a  wall-flower  for  an  entire  sea- 
son. The  officer  took  my  protest  as  an  added 
reason  for  congratulation  upon  their  conduct. 
They  meant  to  be  cruel.  My  words  proved  how 
well  they  had  succeeded. 

Another  little  straw  showing  the  set  of  the 
wind:  we  were  sitting,  four  Americans,  one 
lovely  early  summer  day,  in  a  restaurant  at 
Swinemiinde.  We  had  the  window  open,  look- 
ing out  over  the  sea.  At  the  next  table  were 
some  officers,  one  of  whom  with  an  "Es  zieht," 
but  not  with  a  "by  your  leave,"  came  over  to 
our  table  and  shut  the  window  with  a  bang. 
The  gentleman  with  us  asked  if  we  wanted  the 
window  closed,  and  on  being  assured  we  did 
not,  quietly  rose  and  opened  it  again.  No  one 
who  does  not  know  Prussia  can  imagine  the 


18       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

threatening  atmosphere  which  filled  that  cafe. 

We  met  the  officers  the  same  night  at  the 
Kurhaus  dance.  They  were  introduced,  and  al- 
most immediately  one  of  them  brought  up  the 
window  incident  and  said  most  impressively 
that  if  ladies  had  not  been  at  the  table,  our 
escort  would  have  been  "called  out."  We 
could  see  they  regarded  us  as  unworthy  of  being 
even  transient  participants  of  Kultur  when  we 
opined  that  no  American  man  would  accept  a 
challenge,  and  if  so  unwise  as  to  do  so,  his 
womenfolk  would  lock  him  up  until  he  reached 
a  sounder  judgment!  The  swords  rattled  in 
their  sabres  when  the  frivolous  member  of  our 
party  said  with  a  tone  of  finality,  "You  see  we 
wouldn't  like  our  men's  faces  to  look  as  if  they 
had  got  into  their  mothers'  chopping  bowls!" 

Although  I  had  often  lived  months  on  end 
with  all  these  petty  tyrannies  of  the  mailed  fist, 
and  although  life  had  taught  me  later  that  peo- 
ples grow  by  what  they  feed  upon,  yet  when  I 
read  the  Bryce  report,1  German  frightfulness 

i  Report  of  the  Committee  on  Alleged  German  Outrages  ap- 
pointed by  his  Britannic  Majesty's  Government.  1915.  Mac- 
millan  Company,  New  York. 

Evidence  and  Documents  laid  before  the  Committee  on  Al- 
leged German  Outrages.  Ballantyne,  Hanson  &  Co.,  London. 
1915. 


OUR  FOE  19 

seemed  too  inhuman  for  belief.  While  still 
holding  my  judgment  in  reserve,  I  met  an  in- 
timate friend,  a  Prussian  officer.  He  happened 
to  mention  letters  he  had  received  from  his  rela- 
tives in  Berlin  and  at  the  front,  and  when  I  ex- 
pressed a  wish  to  hear  them,  kindly  asked 
whether  he  should  translate  them  or  read  them 
in  German  as  they  stood.  Laughingly  I  ven- 
tured on  the  German,  saying  I  would  at  least 
find  out  how  much  I  had  forgotten.  So  I  sat 
and  listened  with  ears  pricked  up.  Some  of 
the  letters  were  from  women  folk  and  told  of 
war  conditions  in  the  capital.  They  were  in- 
teresting at  the  time  but  not  worth  repeating 
now.  Then  came  a  letter  from  a  nephew,  a 
lieutenant.  He  gave  his  experience  in  crossing 
Belgium,  told  how  in  one  village  his  men  asked 
a  young  woman  with  her  tiny  baby  on  her  arm 
for  water,  how  she  answered  resentfully,  and 
then,  how  he  shot  her — and  her  baby.  I  ex- 
claimed, thinking  I  had  lost  the  thread  of  the 
letter,  "Not  the  baby?"  And  the  man  I  sup- 
posed I  knew  as  civilized,  replied  with  a  cruel 
smile,  "Yes — discipline!"  That  was  frank, 
frank  as  a  child  would  have  been,  with  no  reali- 
zation of  the  self -revelation  of  it.  The  young 
officer  did  the  deed,  wrote  of  it  to  his  uncle, 


20       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

and  the  uncle,  without  vision  and  understand- 
ing, perverted  by  his  training,  did  not  feel 
shame  and  bury  the  secret  in  his  own  heart,  but 
treasured  the  evidence  against  his  own  nephew, 
and  laid  it  open  before  an  American  woman. 

I  believed  the  Bryce  report — every  word  of 
it! 

And  I  hate  the  system  that  has  so  bent  and 
crippled  a  great  race.  Eevenge  we  must  not 
feel,  that  would  be  to  innoculate  ourselves  with 
the  enemy's  virus.  But  let  us  be  awake  to 
the  fact  that  might  making  right  cuts  athwart 
our  ideals.  German  Kultur,  through  worship 
of  efficiency,  cramps  originality  and  initiative, 
while  our  aim — why  not  be  frank  about  it? — 
is  the  protection  of  inefficiency,  which  means 
sympathy  with  childhood,  and  opportunity  for 
the  spirit  of  art.  German  Kultur  fixes  an  in- 
flexible limit  to  the  aspirations  of  women,  while 
our  goal  is  complete  freedom  for  the  mothers  of 
men. 

The  women  of  the  Allies  can  fight  for  all  that 
their  men  fight  for — for  national  self-respect, 
for  protection  of  citizens,  for  the  sacredness  of 
international  agreements,  for  the  rights  of 
small  nations,  for  the  security  of  democracy, 
and  then  our  women  can  be  inspired  by  one 
thing  more — the  safety  and  development  of  all 


OUR  FOE  21 

those  things  which  they  have  won  for  human 
welfare  in  a  long  and  bloodless  battle. 

Women  fight  for  a  place  in  the  sun  for  those 
who  hold  right  above  might. 


II 

WINNING  THE  WAR 

THE  group  of  nations  that  can  make  the 
greatest  savings,  will  be  victorious,  coun- 
sels one;  the  group  that  can  produce  the  most 
food  and  nourish  the  populations  best,  will  win 
the  war,  urges  another;  but  whatever  the 
prophecy,  whatever  the  advice,  all  paths  to 
victory  lie  through  labor-power. 

Needs  are  not  answered  in  our  day  by  manna 
dropping  from  heaven.  Whether  it  is  food  or 
big  guns  that  are  wanted,  ships  or  coal,  we  can 
only  get  our  heart 's  desire  by  toil.  Where  are 
the  workers  who  will  win  the  warf 

We  are  a  bit  spoiled  in  the  United  States. 
We  have  been  accustomed  to  rub  our  Aladdin's 
lamp  of  opportunity  and  the  good  genii  have 
sent  us  workers.  But  suddenly,  no  matter  how 
great  our  efforts,  no  one  answers  our  appeal. 
The  reservoir  of  immigrant  labor  has  run  dry. 
We  are  in  sorry  plight,  for  we  have  suffered 
from  emigration,  too.  Thousands  of  alien 
workers  have  been  called  back  to  serve  in  the 
V  22 


WINNING  THE  WAR  23 

armies  of  the  Allies.  In  my  own  little  village 
on  Long  Island  the  industrious  Italian  colony 
was  broken  up  by  the  call  to  return  to  the  colors 
in  Piedmont. 

Then,  too,  while  Europe  suffers  loss  of  labor, 
as  do  we,  when  men  are  mobilized,  our  situation 
is  peculiarly  poignant,  for  when  our  armies  are 
gone  they  are  gone.  At  first  this  was  true  in 
Europe.  Men  entered  the  army  and  were  em- 
ployed as  soldiers  only.  After  a  time  it  was 
realized  that  the  war  would  not  be  short,  that 
fields  must  not  lie  untilled  for  years,  nor  men 
undergo  the  deteriorating  effects  of  trench  war- 
fare continuously.  The  fallow  field  and  the 
stale  soldier  were  brought  together. 

We  have  all  chanced  on  photographs  of  Eu- 
ropean soldiers  helping  the  women  plough  in 
springtime,  and  reap  the  harvest  in  the  autumn. 
Perhaps  we  have  regarded  the  scene  as  a  mere 
pastoral  episode  in  a  happy  leave  from  the  bat- 
tle front,  instead  of  realizing  that  it  is  a  snap- 
shot illustrating  a  well  organized  plan  of  secur- 
ing labor.  The  soldiers  are  given  a  furlough 
and  are  sent  where  the  agricultural  need  is 
pressing.  But  the  American  soldier  will  not 
be  able  to  lend  his  skill  in  giving  the  home  fields 
a  rich  seed  time  and  harvest.  The  two  needs, 
the  field  for  the  touch  of  the  human  hand,  and 


24       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

the  soldier  for  labor  under  calm  skies,  cannot  in 
our  case  be  coordinated. 

Scarcity  of  labor  is  not  only  certain  to  grow, 
but  the  demands  upon  the  United  States  for 
service  are  increasing  by  leaps  and  bounds. 
America  must  throw  man-power  into  the 
trenches,  must  feed  herself,  must  contribute 
more  and  ever  more  food  to  the  hungry  popula- 
tions of  Europe,  must  meet  the  old  industrial 
obligations,  and  respond  to  a  whole  range  of 
new  business  requirements.  And  she  is  called 
upon  for  this  effort  at  a  time  when  national 
prosperity  is  already  making  full  use  of  man- 
power. 

When  Europe  went  to  war,  the  world  had 
been  suffering  from  depression  a  year  and  more. 
Immediately  on  the  outbreak  of  hostilities  whole 
lines  of  business  shut  down.  Unemployment 
became  serious.  There  were  idle  hands  every- 
where. Germany,  of  all  the  belligerents,  rallied 
most  quickly  to  meet  war  conditions.  Unem- 
ployment gave  place  to  a  shortage  of  labor 
sooner  there  than  elsewhere.  Great  Britain  did 
not  begin  to  get  the  pace  until  the  middle  of 
1915. 

The  business  situation  in  the  United  States 
upon  its  entrance  into  the  war  was  the  antith- 
esis of  this.  For  over  a  year,  depression  had 


WINNING  THE  WAR  25 

been  superseded  by  increased  industry,  high 
wages,  and  greater  demand  for  labor.  The 
country  as  measured  by  the  ordinary  financial 
signs,  by  its  commerce,  by  its  labor  market,  was 
more  prosperous  than  it  had  been  for  years. 
Tremendous  requisitions  were  being  made  upon 
us  by  Europe,  and  to  the  limit  of  available  labor 
we  were  answering  them.  Then  into  our  eco- 
nomic life,  with  industrial  forces  already  work- 
ing at  high  pressure,  were  injected  the  new  de- 
mands arising  from  changing  the  United  States 
from  a  people  as  unprepared  for  effective  hos- 
tilities as  a  baby  in  its  cradle,  into  a  nation 
equipped  for  war.  There  was  no  unemploy- 
ment, but  on  the  contrary,  shortage  of  labor. 

The  country  calls  for  everything,  and  all  at 
once,  like  the  spoiled  child  on  suddenly  wak- 
ing. It  must  have,  and  without  delay,  ships, 
coal,  cars,  cantonments,  uniforms,  rifles,  and 
food,  food,  food.  How  can  the  needs  be  sup- 
plied and  with  a  million  and  a  half  of  men 
dropping  work  besides?  By  woman-power  or 
coolie  labor.  Those  are  the  horns  of  the 
dilemma  presented  to  puzzled  America.  The 
Senate  of  the  United  States  directs  its  Commit- 
tee of  Agriculture  to  ponder  well  the  coolie 
problem,  for  men  hesitate  to  have  women  put 
their  shoulder  to  the  wheel.  Trade  unionists 


26       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWEK 

are  right  in  urging  that  a  republic  has  no  place 
for  a  disfranchised  class  of  imported  toilers. 
Equally  true  is  it  that  as  a  nation  we  have 
shown  no  gift  for  dealing  with  less  developed 
races.  And  yet  labor  we  must  have.  Will 
American  women  supply  it,  will  they,  loving 
ease,  favor  contract  labor  from  the  outside,  or 
will  they  accept  the  optimistic  view  that  lack 
of  labor  is  not  acute? 

The  procrastinator  queries,  "Cannot  Ameri- 
can man-power  meet  the  demand?"  It  can, 
for  a  time  perhaps,  if  the  draft  for  the  army 
goes  as  slowly  in  the  future  as  it  has  in  the 
past. 

However,  at  any  moment  a  full  realization 
may  come  to  us  of  the  significance  of  the  fact 
that  while  the  United  States  is  putting  only 
three  percent  of  its  workers  into  the  fighting 
forces,  Great  Britain  has  put  twenty-five  per- 
cent, and  is  now  combing  its  industrial  army 
over  to  find  an  additional  five  hundred  thou- 
sand men.  to  throw  on  the  French  front.  It  is 
probable  that  it  will  be  felt  by  this  country  in 
the  near  future  that  such  a  contrast  of  fulfill- 
ment of  obligation  cannot  continue  without 
serious  reflection  on  our  national  honor. 
Eoughly  speaking,  Great  Britain  has  twenty 
million  persons  in  gainful  pursuits.  Of  these, 


.WINNING  THE  WAR  27 

five  million  have  already  been  taken  for  the 
army.  The  contribution  of  France  is  still 
greater.  Her  military  force  has  reached  the 
appalling  proportion  of  one-fifth  of  her  entire 
population.  But  we  who  have  thirty-five  mil- 
lion in  gainful  occupations  are  giving  a  paltry 
one  million,  five  hundred  thousand  in  service 
with  our  Allies.  The  situation  is  not  creditable 
to  us,  and  one  of  the  things  which  stands  in  the 
way  of  the  United  States  reaching  a  more 
worthy  position  is  reluctance  to  see  its  women 
shouldering  economic  burdens. 

While  it  is  quite  true  that  shifting  of  man- 
power is  needed,  mere  shuffling  of  the  cards,  as 
labor  leaders  suggest,  won't  give  a  bigger  pack. 
Fifty-two  cards  it  remains,  though  the  Jack  may 
be  put  into  a  more  suitable  position.  The  man 
behind  the  counter  should  of  course  be  moved  to 
a  muscular  employment,  but  we  must  not  in- 
terpret his  dalliance  with  tapes  and  ribbons  as 
proof  of  a  superfluity  of  men. 

The  latest  reports  of  the  New  York  State  De- 
partment of  Labor  reflect  the  meagerness  of  the 
supply.  Here  are  some  dull  figures  to  prove  it : 
— comparing  the  situation  with  a  year  ago,  we 
find  in  a  corresponding  month,  only  one  percent 
more  employees  this  year,  with  a  wage  advance 
of  seventeen  percent.  Drawing  the  comparison 


28       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

between  this  year  and  two  years  ago,  there  is 
an  advance  of  "fifteen  percent  in  employees 
and  fifty-one  percent  in  wages;"  and  an  in- 
crease of  "thirty  percent  in  employees  and 
eighty-seven  percent  in  wages,"  if  this  year  is 
compared  with  the  conditions  when  the  world 
was  suffering  from  industrial  depression.  The 
State  employment  offices  report  eight  thousand 
three  hundred  and  seventy-six  requests  for 
workers  against  seven  thousand,  six  hundred 
and  fifty  applicants  for  employment,  and  of  the 
latter  only  seventy-three  percent  were  fitted  for 
the  grades  of  work  open  to  them,  and  were 
placed  in  situations. 

The  last  records  of  conditions  in  the  Wilkes- 
Barre  coal  regions  confirm  the  fact  of  labor 
scarcity.  There  are  one  hundred  and  fifty-two 
thousand  men  and  boys  at  work  today  in  the 
anthracite  fields,  twenty-five  thousand  less  than 
the  number  employed  in  1916.  These  miners, 
owing  to  the  prod  of  the  highest  wages  ever  re- 
ceived— the  skilled  man  earning  from  forty  dol- 
lars to  seventy-five  dollars  a  week — and  to  ap- 
peals to  their  patriotism,  are  individually  pro- 
ducing a  larger  output  than  ever  before.  It  is 
considered  that  production,  with  the  present 
labor  force,  is  at  its  maximum,  and  if  a  yield 
of  coal  commensurate  with  the  world's  need 


WINNING  THE  WAE  29 

is  to  be  attained,  at  least  seventy  percent  more 
men  must  be  supplied. 

This  is  a  call  for  man-power  in  addition  to 
that  suggested  by  the  Fuel  Administrator  to 
the  effect  that  lack  of  coal  is  partly  lack  of  cars 
and  that  "back  of  the  transportation  shortage 
lies  labor  shortage."  An  order  was  sent  out 
by  the  Director  General  of  Railways,  soon  after 
his  appointment,  that  mechanics  from  the  repair 
shops  of  the  west  were  to  be  shifted  to  the  east 
to  supply  the  call  for  help  on  the  Atlantic  bor- 
der. 

Suggestive  of  the  cause  of  all  this  shortage, 
float  the  service  flags  of  the  mining  and  rail- 
way companies,  the  hundreds  of  glowing  stars 
telling  their  tale  of  men  gone  to  the  front,  and 
of  just  so  many  stars  torn  from  the  standards 
of  the  industrial  army  at  home. 

The  Shipping  Board  recently  called  for  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  to  be  gradually 
recruited  as  a  skilled  army  for  work  in  ship- 
yards. At  the  same  time  the  Congress  passed 
an  appropriation  of  fifty  million  dollars  for 
building  houses  to  accommodate  ship  labor. 
Six  months  ago  only  fifty  thousand  men  were 
employed  in  ship-building,  today  there  are  one 
hundred  and  forty-five  thousand.  This  rapid 
drawing  of  men  to  new  centers  creates  a  hous- 


30       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

ing  problem  so  huge  that  it  must  be  met  by  the 
government ;  and  it  need  hardly  be  pointed  out, 
shelter  can  be  built  only  by  human  hands. 

One  state  official,  prompted  no  doubt  by  a  wise 
hostility  to  coolie  labor,  and  dread  of  woman 
labor,  has  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  publicly 
that  any  employer  who  will  pay  "adequate 
wages  can  get  all  the  labor  he  requires."  This 
view  suggests  that  we  may  soon  have  to  adopt 
the  methods  of  other  belligerents  and  stop  em- 
ployers by  law  from  stealing  a  neighbor 's  work- 
ing force.  I  know  of  a  shipyard  with  a  normal 
pay-roll  of  five  hundred  hands,  which  in  one 
year  engaged  and  lost  to  nearby  munition 
factories  thirteen  thousand  laborers.  Such 
"shifting,"  hiding  as  it  does  shortage  of  man- 
power, leads  to  serious  loss  in  our  productive 
efficiency  and  should  not  be  allowed  to  go  un- 
checked. 

The  manager  of  one  of  the  New  York  City 
street  railways  met  with  complete  denial  the 
easy  optimism  that  adequate  remuneration  will 
command  a  sufficient  supply  of  men.  He  told 
me  that  he  had  introduced  women  at  the  same 
wage  as  male  conductors,  not  because  he  wanted 
women,  but  because  he  now  had  only  five  appli- 
cations by  fit  men  to  thirty  or  forty  formerly. 
There  were  men  to  be  had,  he  said,  and  at  lower 


WINNING  THE  WAR  31 

wages  than  his  company  was  paying,  but  they 
were  "not  of  the  class  capable  of  fulfilling  the 
requirements  of  the  position." 

The  Labor  Administration  announced  on  its 
creation  that  its  "policy  would  be  to  prevent 
woman  labor  in  positions  for  which  men  are 
available,"  and  one  of  the  deputy  commission- 
ers of  the  Industrial  Commission  of  the  State 
of  New  York  declared  quite  frankly  at  a  labor 
conference  that  "if  he  could,  he  would  exclude 
women  from  industry  altogether." 

We  may  try  to  prevent  the  oncoming  tide  of 
the  economic  independence  of  women,  but  it  will 
not  be  possible  to  force  the  business  world  to 
accept  permanently  the  service  of  the  inefficient 
in  place  of  that  of  the  alert  and  intelligent.  To 
carry  on  the  economic  life  of  a  nation  with  its 
labor  flotsam  and  jetsam  is  loss  at  any  time; 
in  time  of  storm  and  stress  it  is  suicide. 

Man-power  is  short,  seriously  so.  The  farm 
is  always  the  best  barometer  to  give  warning 
of  scarcity  of  labor.  The  land  has  been  drained 
of  its  workers.  A  fair  wage  would  keep  them 
on  the  farm — this  is  the  philosophy  of  laissez 
faire.  Without  stopping  to  inquire  as  to  what 
the  munition  works  would  then  do,  we  can  still 
see  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  farm  can  act 
as  magnet.  Even  men,  let  us  venture  the  sug- 


32       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

gestion,  like  change  for  the  mere  sake  of  change. 
A  middle-aged  man,  who  had  taken  up  work  at 
Bridgeport,  said  to  me,  "I've  mulled  around  on 
the  farm  all  my  days.  I  grabbed  the  first 
chance  to  get  away."  And  then  there's  a  finer 
spirit  prompting  the  desertion  of  the  hoe.  A 
man  of  thirty-three  gave  me  the  point  of  view. 
"My  brother  is  'over  there,'  and  I  feel  as  if  I 
were  backing  him  up  by  making  guns." 

The  only  thing  that  can  change  the  idea  that 
farming  is  "mulling  around,"  and  making  a 
gun  "backs  up"  the  man  at  the  front  more  thor- 
oughly than  raising  turnips,  is  to  bring  to  the 
farm  new  workers  who  realize  the  vital  part 
played  by  food  in  the  winning  of  the  war.  As 
the  modern  industrial  system  has  developed 
with  its  marvels  of  specialized  machinery,  its 
army  of  employees  gathered  and  dispersed  on 
the  stroke  of  the  clock,  and  strong  organizations 
created  to  protect  the  interests  of  the  worker, 
the  calm  and  quiet  processes  of  agriculture  have 
in  comparison  grown  colorless.  The  average 
farmhand  has  never  found  push  and  drive  and 
group  action  on  the  farm,  but  only  individual- 
ism to  the  extreme  of  isolation.  And  now  in 
war  time,  when  in  addition  to  its  usual  life  of 
stirring  contacts,  the  factory  takes  on  an  inti- 
mate and  striking  relation  to  the  intense  expe- 


WINNING  THE  WAR  33 

rience  of  the  battle  front,  the  work  of  the  farm 
seems  as  flat  as  it  is  likely  to  be  unprofitable. 
The  man  in  the  furrow  has  no  idea  that  he  is 
"backing  up'*  the  boy  in  the  trench. 

The  farmer  in  his  turn  does  not  find  himself 
part  of  the  wider  relations  that  attract  and 
support  the  manufacturer.  Crops  are  not 
grown  on  order.  The  marketing  is  as  uncer- 
tain as  the  weather.  The  farmer  could  by 
higher  wages  attract  more  labor,  but  as  the  sell- 
ing of  the  harvest  remains  a  haphazard  mat- 
ter, the  venture  might  mean  ruin  all  the  more 
certain  and  serious  were  wage  outlay  large.  In 
response  to  a  call  for  food  and  an  appeal  to  his 
patriotism,  the  farmer  has  repeatedly  made  un- 
usual efforts  to  bring  his  land  to  the  maximum 
fertility,  only  to  find  his  crops  often  a  dead  loss, 
as  he  could  not  secure  the  labor  to  harvest  them. 
I  saw,  one  summer,  acres  of  garden  truck  at  its 
prime  ploughed  under  in  Connecticut  because 
of  a  shortage  of  labor.  I  saw  fruit  left  rotting 
by  the  bushel  in  the  orchards  near  Rochester  be- 
cause of  scarcity  of  pickers  and  a  doubt  of  the 
reliability  of  the  market.  The  industry  which 
means  more  than  any  other  to  the  well-being  of 
humanity  at  this  crisis,  is  the  sport  of  methods 
outgrown  and  of  servants  who  lack  understand- 
ing and  inspiration. 


34       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

The  war  may  furnish  the  spark  for  the 
needed  revolution.  Man-power  is  not  available, 
woman-power  is  at  hand.  A  new  labor  force 
always  brings  ideas  and  ideals  peculiar  to  it- 
self. May  not  women  as  fresh  recruits  in  a 
land  army  stamp  their  likes  and  dislikes  on 
farm  life  ?  Their  enthusiasm  may  put  staleness 
to  rout,  and  the  group  system  of  women  land 
workers,  already  tested  in  the  crucible  of  experi- 
ence, may  bring  to  the  farm  the  needed  antidote 
to  isolation. 

To  win  the  war  we  must  have  man-power  in 
the  trenches  sufficient  to  win  it  with.  To  win, 
every  soldier,  every  sailor,  must  be  well  fed, 
well  clothed,  well  equipped.  To  win,  behind  the 
armed  forces  must  stand  determined  peoples. 
To  win,  the  people  of  America  and  her  Allies 
must  be  heartened  by  care  and  food. 

The  sun  shines  on  the  fertile  land,  the  earth 
teems  with  forests,  with  coal,  with  every  neces- 
sary mineral  and  food,  but  labor,  labor  alone 
can  transform  all  to  meet  our  necessities. 
Man-power  unaided  cannot  supply  the  demand. 
Women  in  America  must  shoulder  as  nobly  as 
have  the  women  of  Europe,  this  duty.  They 
must  answer  their  country's  call.  Let  them  see 
clearly  that  the  desire  of  their  men  to  shield 


WINNING  THE  WAR  35 

them  from  possible  injury  exposes  the  nation 
and  the  world  to  actual  danger. 

Our  winning  of  the  war  depends  upon  the  full 
use  of  the  energy  of  our  entire  people.  Every 
muscle,  every  brain,  must  be  mobilized  if  the 
national  aim  is  to  be  achieved. 


ni 

MOBILIZING  WOMEN  IN  GEEAT 
BRITAIN * 

IN  no  country  have  women  reached  a  mobil- 
ization so  complete  and  systematized  as  in 
Great  Britain.  This  mobilization  covers  the 
whole  field  of  war  service — in  industry,  busi- 
ness and  professional  life,  and  in  government 
administration.  Women  serve  on  the  Ministry 
of  Food  and  are  included  in  the  membership 
of  twenty-five  of  the  important  government 
committees,  not  auxiliary  or  advisory,  but  ad- 
ministrative committees,  such  as  those  on  War 
Pensions,  on  Disabled  Officers  and  Men,  on 
Education  after  the  War,  and  the  Labor  Com- 
mission to  Deal  with  Industrial  Unrest. 

In  short,  the  women  of  Great  Britain  are 
working  side  by  side  with  men  in  the  initiation 
and  execution  of  plans  to  solve  the  problems 
which  confront  the  nation. 

i  Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Editors  of  The  Outlook,  I  am 
at  liberty  to  use  in  this  and  the  following  chapter,  some  of 
the  material  published  in  an  article  by  me  in  The  Outlook  of 
June  28,  1916. 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  37 

Four  committees,  as  for  instance  those  mak- 
ing investigations  and  recommendations  on 
Women's  Wages  and  Drink  Among  Women,  are 
entirely  composed  of  women,  and  great  de- 
partments, such  as  the  Women's  Land  Army, 
the  Women's  Army  Auxiliary  Corps,  are  offi- 
cered throughout  by  them.  Hospitals  under 
the  War  Office  have  been  placed  in  complete 
control  of  medical  women ;  they  take  rank  with 
medical  men  in  the  army  and  receive  the  pay 
going  with  their  commissions. 

When  Great  Britain  recognized  that  the  war 
could  not  be  won  by  merely  sending  splendid 
fighters  to  the  front  and  meeting  the  wastage  by 
steady  drafts  upon  the  manhood  of  the  coun- 
try, she  began  to  build  an  efficient  organization 
of  industry  at  home. 

To  the  call  for  labor-power  British  women 
gave  instant  response.  In  munitions  a  million 
are  mobilized,  in  the  Land  Army  there  have 
been  drafted  and  actually  placed  on  the  farms 
over  three  hundred  thousand,  and  in  the 
Women's  Army  Auxiliary  Corps  fourteen  thou- 
sand women  are  working  in  direct  connection 
with  the  fighting  force,  and  an  additional  ten 
thousand  are  being  called  out  for  service  each 
month.  In  the  clerical  force  of  the  government 
departments,  some  of  which  had  never  seen 


38       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

women  before  in  their  sacred  precincts,  over  one 
hundred  and  ninety-eight  thousand  are  now 
working.  And  the  women  civil  servants  are  not 
only  engaged  in  indoor  service,  but  outside  too, 
most  of  the  carrying  of  mail  being  in  their 
hands. 

Women  are  dock-laborers,  some  seven  thou- 
sand strong.  Four  thousand  act  as  patrols  and 
police,  forty  thousand  are  in  banks  and  various 
financial  houses.  It  is  said  that  there  are  in 
Great  Britain  scarce  a  million  women — and  they 
are  mostly  occupied  as  housewives — who  could 
render  greater  service  to  their  country  than 
that  which  they  are  now  giving. 

The  wide  inclusion  of  women  in  government 
administration  is  very  striking  to  us  in  Amer- 
ica. But  we  must  not  forget  that  the  contrast 
between  the  two  countries  in*  the  participation 
of  women  in  political  life  and  public  service 
has  always  been  great.  The  women  of  the 
United  Kingdom  have  enjoyed  the  municipal 
and  county  franchise  for  years.  For  a  long 
time  large  numbers  of  women  have  been  called 
to  administrative  positions.  They  have  had 
thorough  training  in  government  as  Poor  Law 
Guardians,  District  and  County  Councilors, 
members  of  School  Boards.  No  women,  the 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  39 

whole  world  over,  are  equipped  as  those  of 
Great  Britain  for  service  to  the  state. 

In  the  glamor  of  the  extremely  striking  gov- 
ernment service  of  British  women,  we  must  not 
overlook  their  non-official  organizations.  Per- 
haps these  offer  the  most  valuable  suggestions 
for  America.  They  are  near  enough  to  our  ex- 
perience to  be  quite  understandable. 

The  mother  country  is  not  under  regimenta- 
tion. Originality  and  initiative  have  full  play. 
Perhaps  it  was  well  that  the  government  failed 
to  appreciate  what  women  could  do,  and  neg- 
lected them  so  long.  Most  of  the  effective  work 
was  started  in  volunteer  societies  and  had 
proved  a  success  before  there  was  an  official 
laying  on  of  hands.  Anglo-Saxons — it  is  our 
strong  point — always  work  from  below,  up. 

A  glance  at  any  account  of  the  mobilization 
of  woman-power  in  Great  Britain,  Miss  Fras- 
er's  admirable  "Women  and  War  Work,"  for 
instance,  will  reveal  the  printed  page  dotted 
thick  with  the  names  of  volunteer  associations. 
A  woman  with  sympathy  sees  a  need,  she  gets 
an  idea  and  calls  others  about  her.  Quickly, 
there  being  no  red  tape,  the  need  begins  to  be 
met.  What  more  admirable  service  could  have 
been  performed  than  that  inaugurated  in  the 


40       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

early  months  of  the  war  under  the  Queen's 
Work  for  Women  Fund,  when  work  was  secured 
for  the  women  in  luxury  trades  which  were  col- 
lapsing under  war  pressure!  A  hundred  and 
thirty  firms  employing  women  were  kept  run- 
ning. 

What  more  thrilling  example  of  courage  and 
forethought  has  been  shown  than  by  the  Scot- 
tish Women's  Hospitals  in  putting  on  the  west- 
ern front  the  first  X-ray  car  to  move  from  point 
to  point  near  the  lines  ?  It  but  adds  to  the  ap- 
peal of  the  work  that  those  great  scientists, 
Mrs.  Ayrton  and  Madame  Curie,  selected  the 
equipment. 

It  was  a  non-official  body,  the  National  Union 
of  Women's  Suffrage  Societies,  which  opened 
before  the  war  was  two  weeks  old  the  Women 's 
Service  Bureau,  and  soon  placed  forty  thou- 
sand women  as  paid  and  volunteer  workers.  It 
was  this  bureau  that  furnished  the  government 
with  its  supervisors  for  the  arsenals.  The 
Women's. Farm  and  Garden  Union  was  the  fore- 
runner of  the  official  Land  Army,  and  to  it  still 
is  left  the  important  work  of  enrolling  those 
women  who,  while  willing  to  undertake  agricul- 
tural work,  are  disinclined  to  sign  up  for  serv- 
ice "for  the  duration  of  the  war." 

Not  only  have  unnumbered  voluntary  asso- 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  41 

ciations  achieved  miracles  in  necessary  work, 
but  many  of  them  have  gained  untold  discipline 
in  the  ridicule  they  have  had  to  endure  from  a 
doubting  public.  I  remember  hunting  in  vain 
all  about  Oxford  Circus  for  the  tucked-away 
office  of  the  Women's  Signalling  Corps.  My 
inquiries  only  made  the  London  bobbies  grin. 
Everyone  laughed  at  the  idea  of  women  sig- 
nalling, but  to-day  the  members  are  recognized 
officially,  one  holding  an  important  appoint- 
ment in  the  college  of  wireless  telegraphy. 

How  Scotland  Yard  smiled,  at  first,  at  Miss 
Darner  Dawson  and  her  Women  Police  Serv- 
ice !  But  now  the  metropolitan  police  are  call- 
ing for  the  help  of  her  splendidly  trained  and 
reliable  force. 

And  the  Women's  Reserve  Ambulance  Corps 
— I  climbed  and  climbed  to  an  attic  to  visit 
their  headquarters !  There  was  the  command- 
ant in  her  khaki,  very  gracious,  but  very  up- 
standing, and  maintaining  the  strictest  disci- 
pline. No  member  of  the  corps  entered  or  left 
her  office  without  clapping  heels  together  and 
saluting.  The  ambulance  about  which  the  corps 
revolved,  I  often  met  in  the  streets — empty. 
But  those  women  had  vision.  They  saw  that 
England  would  need  them  some  day.  They 
had  faith  in  their  ability  to  serve.  So  on  and 


42       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

on  they  went,  training  themselves  to  higher 
efficiency  in  body  and  mind.  And  to-day — 
well,  theirs  is  always  the  first  ambulance  on 
the  spot  to  care  for  the  injured  in  the  air-raids. 
The  scoffers  have  remained  to  pray. 

If  Britain  has  a  lesson  for  us  it  is  an  all-hail 
to  non-official  societies,  an  encouragement  to 
every  idea,  a  blessing  on  every  effort  which  has 
behind  it  honesty  of  purpose.  Great  Britain's 
activities  are  as  refreshingly  diversified  as  her 
talents.  They  are  not  all  under  one  hat. 

In  the  training  for  new  industrial  openings 
this  same  spirit  of  non-official  service  showed 
itself.  In  munitions,  for  instance,  private  em- 
ployers were  the  first  to  recognize  that  they 
had  in  women-workers  a  labor  force  worth  the 
cost  of  training.  The  best  of  the  skilled  men  in 
many  cases  were  told  off  to  give  the  necessary 
instruction.  The  will  to  do  was  in  the  learner; 
she  soon  mastered  even  complex  processes,  and 
at  the  end  of  a  few  weeks  was  doing  even  bet- 
ter than  men  in  the  light  work,  and  achieving 
commendable  output  in  the  heavy.  The  suf- 
frage organizations,  whenever  a  new  line  of 
skilled  work  was  opened  to  women,  established 
well-equipped  centers  to  give  the  necessary 
teaching.  Not  until  it  became  apparent  that 
the  new  labor-power  only  needed  training  to 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  43 

reach  a  high  grade  of  proficiency,  did  County 
Councils  establish,  at  government  expense, 
technical  classes  for  girls  and  women. 

Equipment  of  the  army  was  obviously  the 
first  and  pressing  obligation.  Fields  might  lie 
fallow,  for  food  in  the  early  days  could  easily 
be  brought  from  abroad,  but  men  had  to  be 
registered,  soldiers  clothed  and  equipped.  It 
was  natural,  then,  that  the  new  workers  were 
principally  used  in  registration  work  and  in 
making  military  supplies. 

But  in  the  second  year  of  the  war  came  the 
conviction  that  the  contest  was  not  soon  to  be 
ended,  and  that  the  matter  of  raising  food  at 
home  must  be  met.  Women  were  again  ap- 
pealed to.  A  Land  Army  mobilized  by  women 
was  created.  At  first  this  work  was  carried 
on  under  a  centralized  division  of  the  National 
Service  Department,  but  there  has  been  decen- 
tralization and  the  Land  Army  is  now  a  depart- 
ment of  the  Board  of  Agriculture.  It  is  headed 
by  Miss  M.  Talbot  as  director.  Under  this 
central  body  are  Women's  Agricultural  Com- 
mittees in  each  county,  with  an  organizing  sec- 
retary whose  duty  it  is  to  secure  full-time  re- 
cruits. 

The  part-time  workers  in  a  locality  are  ob- 
tained by  the  wife  of  the  squire  or  vicar  acting 


44       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

as  a  volunteer  registrar.  Many  of  these  part- 
time  workers  register  to  do  the  domestic  work 
of  the  lusty  young  village  housewife  or  mother 
while  she  is  absent  from  home  performing  her 
allotted  task  on  a  nearby  farm.  The  full-time 
recruits  are  not  only  secured  by  the  organizers, 
but  through  registrations  at  every  post  office. 
Any  woman  can  ask  for  a  registration  card  and 
fill  it  out,  and  the  postmaster  then  forwards  the 
application  to  the  committee.  The  next  step 
is  that  likely  applicants  are  called  to  the  near- 
est center  for  examination  and  presentation  of 
credentials.  When  finally  accepted  they  are 
usually  sent  for  six  weeks'  or  three  months' 
training  to  a  farm  belonging  to  some  large  es- 
tate. The  landlord  contributes  the  training, 
and  the  government  gives  the  recruit  her  uni- 
form and  fifteen  shillings  a  week  to  cover  her 
board  and  lodging.  At  the  end  of  her  course 
she  receives  an  armlet  signifying  her  rank  in 
the  Land  Army  and  is  ready  to  go  wherever  the 
authorities  send  her. 

The  farmer  in  Great  Britain  no  longer  needs 
to  be  converted  to  the  value  of  the  new  workers. 
He  knows  they  can  do  every  kind  of  farm  work 
as  well  as  men,  and  are  more  reliable  and  con- 
scientious than  boys,  and  he  is  ready,  therefore, 
to  pay  the  required  minimum  wage  of  eighteen 


45 

shillings  a  week,  or  above  that  amount  if  the 
rate  ruling  in  the  district  is  higher. 

Equally  well  organized  is  the  Women's 
Army  Auxiliary  Corps,  familiarly  known  as  the 
Waacs.  The  director  is  Mrs.  Chalmers  Watson. 
A  would-be  Waac  goes  to  the  center  in  her 
county  for  examination,  and  then  is  assigned  to 
work  at  home  or  ''somewhere  in  France"  ac- 
cording to  training  and  capacity.  She  may  be 
fitted  as  a  cook,  a  storekeeper,  a  telephone  or 
telegraph  operator,  or  for  signalling  or  salvage 
work.  Lei  us  not  say  she  will  supplant  a  man, 
but  rather  set  a  man  free  for  fuller  service. 

My  niece,  a  slip  of  a  girl,  felt  the  call  of  duty 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  Her  brothers  were 
early  volunteers  in  Kitchener's  Army.  They 
were  in  the  trenches  and  she  longed  for  the  sen- 
sation of  bearing  a  burden  of  hard  work.  She 
went  to  Woolwich  Arsenal  and  toiled  twelve 
hours  a  day.  She  broke  under  the  strain,  re- 
cuperated, and  took  up  munition  work  again. 
She  became  expert,  and  was  in  time  an  overseer 
told  off  to  train  other  women.  But  she  was 
never  satisfied,  and  always  anxious  to  be  nearer 
the  great  struggle.  She  broke  away  one  day 
and  went  to  Southampton  for  a  Waac  examina- 
tion, and  found  herself  one  of  a  group  of  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  gentlewomen  all  anxious  to  enter 


46        MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

active  service  and  all  prepared  for  some  defi- 
nite work.  They  stood  their  tests,  and  Dolly — 
that's  the  little  niece's  pet  name,  given  to  her 
because  she  is  so  tiny — is  now  working  as  an 
"engine  fitter"  just  behind  the  fighting  lines. 
Dainty  Dolly,  whom  we  have  always  treated  as 
a  fragile  bit  of  Sevres  china,  clad  in  breeches 
and  puttees,  under  the  booming  of  the  great 
guns,  is  fitting  patiently,  part  to  part,  the  beat- 
ing engine  which  will  lift  on  wings  some  English 
boy  in  his  flight  through  the  blue  skies  of 
France. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  mag- 
nificent service  of  British  women,  devoted,  effi- 
cient and  well-organized  from  top  to  bottom, 
realized  itself  without  friction,  any  more  than  it 
will  here.  There  were  certainly  two  wars  go- 
ing on  in  Great  Britain  for  a  long  time,  and 
the  internal  strife  was  little  less  bitter  than  the 
international  conflict.  The  most  active  center 
of  this  contest  of  which  we  have  heard  so  little 
was  in  industry,  and  the  combatants  were  the 
government,  trade  unions  and  women.  The 
unions  were  doing  battle  because  of  fear  of  un- 
skilled workers,  especially  when  intelligent  and 
easily  trained;  the  government,  in  sore  need  of 
munition  hands,  was  bargaining  with  the  un- 
skilled for  long  hours  and  low  pay.  Finally  the 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  47 

government  and  the  unions  reluctantly  agreed 
that  women  must  be  employed;  both  wanted 
them  to  be  skillful,  but  not  too  skillful,  and 
above  all,  to  remain  amenable.  It  has  been 
made  clear,  too,  that  women  enter  their  new  po- 
sitions "for  the  war  only."  At  the  end  of  hos- 
tilities— international  hostilities — women  are  to 
hand  over  their  work  and  wages  to  men  and  go 
home  and  be  content.  Will  the  program  be  ful- 
filled? 

The  wishes  of  women  themselves  may  play 
some  part.  How  do  they  feel?  Obviously, 
every  day  the  war  lasts  they  get  wider  experi- 
ence of  the  sorrows  and  pleasures  of  financial 
independence.  Women  are  called  the  practical 
sex,  and  I  certainly  found  them  in  England  fac- 
ing the  fact  that  peace  will  mean  an  insufficient 
number  of  breadwinners  to  go  around  and  that 
a  maimed  man  may  have  low  earning  power. 
The  women  I  met  were  not  dejected  at  the  pros- 
pect ;  they  showed,  on  the  contrary,  a  spirit  not 
far  removed  from  elation  in  finding  new  oppor- 
tunities of  service.  After  I  had  sat  and  listened 
to  speech  after  speech  at  the  annual  conference 
of  the  National  Union  of  Women  Workers,  with 
delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  presided 
over  by  Mrs.  Creighton,  widow  of  the  late 
Bishop  of  London,  there  was  no  doubt  in  my 


48        MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

mind  that  British  women  desired  to  enter  paid 
fields  of  work,  and  regarded  as  permanent  the 
great  increase  in  their  employment.  No  regrets 
or  hesitations  were  expressed  in  a  single  speech, 
and  the  solutions  of  the  problems  inherent  in  the 
new  situation  all  lay  in  the  direction  of  equality 
of  preparation  and  equality  of  pay  with  men. 

The  strongest  element  in  the  women's  trade 
unions  takes  the  same  stand.  The  great  rise  in 
the  employment  of  women  is  not  regarded  as  a 
"war  measure,"  and  all  the  suggestions  made 
to  meet  the  hardships  of  readjustment,  such  as 
a  "minimum  wage  for  all  unskilled  workers, 
men  as  well  as  women,"  are  based  on  the  idea 
of  the  new  workers  being  permanent  factors  in 
the  labor  market. 

The  same  conclusion  was  reached  in  the  re- 
port presented  to  the  British  Association  by  the 
committee  appointed  to  investigate  the  "Re- 
placement of  Male  by  Female  Labor."  The 
committee  found  itself  in  entire  disagreement 
with  the  opinion  that  the  increased  employment 
of  women  was  a  passing  phase,  and  made  recom- 
mendations bearing  on  such  measures  as  im- 
proved technical  training  for  girls  as  well  as  for 
boys,  a  minimum  wage  for  unskilled  men  as  well 
as  women,  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  and  the 
abolition  of  "half-timers." 


49 

But  while  it  was  obvious  that  the  greatest 
asset  of  belligerent  nations  is  the  labor  of 
women,  while  learned  societies  and  organiza- 
tions of  women  laid  down  rules  for  their  safe 
and  permanent  employment,  the  British  Gov- 
ernment showed  marked  opposition  to  the  new 
workers.  If  the  Cabinet  did  not  believe  the 
war  would  be  brief,  it  certainly  acted  as  if  Great 
Britain  alone  among  the  belligerents  would  have 
no  shortage  of  male  industrial  hands.  At  a 
time  when  Germany  had  five  hundred  thousand 
women  in  munition  factories,  England  had  but 
ten  thousand. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  country  was  at  first 
organized  merely  for  a  spurt.  Boys  and  girls 
were  pressed  into  service,  wages  were  cut  down 
for  women,  hours  lengthened  for  men.  Govern- 
ment reports  read  like  the  Shaftesbury  attacks 
on  the  conditions  of  early  factory  days.  We 
hear  again  of  beds  that  are  never  cold,  the 
occupant  of  one  shift  succeeding  the  occupant 
of  the  next,  of  the  boy  sleeping  in  the  same  bed 
with  two  men,  and  three  girls  in  a  cot  in  the 
same  room.  Labor  unrest  was  met  at  first  by 
the  Munitions  War  Act  prohibiting  strikes  and 
lockouts,  establishing  compulsory  arbitration 
and  suspending  all  trade-union  rules  which 
might ' '  hamper  production. ' '  Under  the  law  a 


50        MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

"voluntary  army  of  workers'*  signed  up  as 
ready  to  go  anywhere  their  labor  was  needed, 
and  local  munition  committees  became  labor 
courts  endowed  with  power  to  change  wage 
rates,  to  inflict  fines  on  slackers,  and  on  those 
who  broke  the  agreements  of  the  "voluntary 
army. ' ' 

To  meet  the  threatening  rebellion,  a  Health 
of  Munition  Workers  Committee  under  the  Min- 
istry of  Munitions  was  appointed  to  "consider 
and  advise  on  questions  of  industrial  fatigue, 
hours  of  labor  and  other  matters  affecting  the 
physical  health  and  physical  efficiency  of  work- 
ers in  munition  factories  and  workshops. ' '  On 
this  committee  there  were  distinguished  medical 
men,  labor  experts,  members  of  parliament  and 
two  women,  Miss  R.  E.  Squire  of  the  Factory 
Department  and  Mrs.  H.  J.  Tennant. 

The  committee  was  guided  by  a  desire  to  have 
immense  quantities  of  munitions  turned  out,  and 
faced  squarely  the  probability  that  the  war 
would  be  of  long  duration.  Its  findings,  em- 
bodied in  a  series  of  memoranda,  have  lessons 
for  us,  not  only  for  war  times,  but  for  peace 
times,  for  all  time. 

On  a  seven  day  week  the  verdict  was  that 
"if  the  maximum  output  is  to  be  secured  and 
maintained  for  any  length  of  time,  a  weekly 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  51 

period  of  rest  must  be  allowed. ' '  Overtime  was 
advised  against,  a  double  or  triple  shift  being 
recommended. 

In  July,  1916,  the  committee  published  a  most 
interesting  memorandum  on  experiments  in  the 
relation  of  output  to  hours.  In  one  case  the 
output  was  increased  eight  percent  by  reducing 
the  weekly  hours  from  sixty-eight  to  fifty-nine, 
and  it  was  found  that  a  decrease  to  fifty-six 
hours  per  week  gave  the  same  output  as  fifty- 
nine.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  there  was  no 
change  in  machinery,  tools,  raw  material  or 
workers.  All  elements  except  hours  of  work 
were  identical.  Twenty-seven  workers  doing 
very  heavy  work  increased  their  output  ten  per- 
cent by  cutting  weekly  hours  from  sixty-one  to 
fifty-five.  In  a  munition  plant  employing 
thirty-six  thousand  hands  it  was  found  that  the 
sick  rate  ranged  from  five  to  eight  percent 
when  the  employees  were  working  overtime, 
and  was  only  three  percent  when  they  were  on  a 
double  shift. 

The  war  has  forced  Great  Britain  to  carry 
out  the  findings  of  this  committee  and  to  con- 
sider more  seriously  than  ever  before,  and  for 
both  men  and  women,  the  problem  of  industrial 
fatigue,  the  relation  of  accidents  to  hours  of 
labor,  industrial  diseases,  housing,  transit,  and 


52       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

industrial  canteens.  The  munition  worker  is  as 
important  as  the  soldier  and  must  have  the  best 
of  care. 

While  the  friction  in  the  ranks  of  industrial 
women  workers  was  still  far  from  being  ad- 
justed, the  government  met  its  Waterloo  in  the 
contest  with  medical  women.  The  service  which 
they  freely  offered  their  country  was  at  first 
sternly  refused.  Undaunted,  they  sought  recog- 
nition outside  the  mother  country.  They  knew 
their  skill  and  they  knew  the  soldiers'  need. 
They  turned  to  hospitable  France,  and  received 
official  recognition.  On  December  14,  1914,  the 
first  hospital  at  the  front  under  British  medical 
women  was  opened  in  Abbaye  Eoyaumont,  near 
Creil.  It  carries  the  official  designation, '  *  Hop- 
ital  Auxiliaire  301."  The  doctors,  the  nurses, 
the  cooks,  are  all  women.  One  of  the  capable 
chauffeurs  I  saw  running  the  ambulance  when 
I  was  in  Creil.  She  was  getting  the  wounded 
as  they  came  down  from  the  front.  The  French 
Government  appreciated  what  the  women  were 
doing  and  urged  them  to  give  more  help.  At 
Troyes  another  unit  gave  the  French  army  its 
first  experience  of  nursing  under  canvas. 

After  France  had  been  profiting  by  the  skill 
of  British  women  for  months,  Sir  Alfred  Keogh, 
Medical  Director  General,  wisely  insisted  that 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  53 

the  War  Office  yield  and  place  a  hospital  in  the 
hands  of  women.  The  War  Hospital  in  Endell 
Street,  London,  is  now  under  Dr.  Flora  Murray, 
and  every  office,  except  that  of  gateman,  is  filled 
by  women.  From  the  doctors,  who  rank  as 
majors,  down  to  the  cooks,  who  rank  as  non- 
commissioned officers,  every  one  connected  with 
Endell  Street  has  military  standing.  It  indi- 
cated the  long,  hard  road  these  women  had 
traveled  to  secure  official  recognition  that  the 
doctor  who  showed  me  over  the  hospital  told 
me,  as  a  matter  for  congratulation,  that  at  night 
the  police  brought  in  drunken  soldiers  to  be 
sobered.  "Every  war  hospital  must  receive 
them, ' '  she  explained,  * '  and  we  are  glad  we  are 
not  passed  over,  for  that  gives  the  stamp  to 
our  official  standing." 

It  was  a  beautiful  autumn  day  when  I  visited 
Endell  Street.  The  great  court  was  full  of 
convalescents,  and  the  orderlies  in  khaki,  with 
veils  floating  back  from  their  close-fitting 
toques,  were  carefully  and  skillfully  lifting  the 
wounded  from  an  ambulance.  I  spoke  to  one 
of  the  soldier  boys  about  the  absence  of  men 
doctors  and  orderlies,  and  his  quick  query  was, 
"And  what  should  we  want  men  for?"  It 
seems  that  they  always  take  that  stand  after 
a  day  or  two.  At  first  the  patient  is  puzzled; 


54        MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

he  calls  the  doctor  "sister"  and  the  orderly 
"nurse,"  but  ends  by  being  an  enthusiastic 
champion  of  the  new  order.  Not  a  misogynist 
did  I  find.  One  poor  fellow  who  had  been 
wounded  again  and  again  and  had  been  in  many 
hospitals,  declared,  "I  don't  mean  no  flattery, 
but  this  place  leaves  nothink  wanting." 

The  first  woman  I  met  on  my  last  visit  to  Eng- 
land upset  my  expectation  of  finding  that  war 
pushed  women  back  into  primitive  conditions 
of  toil,  crushed  them  under  the  idea  that  physi- 
cal force  rules  the  world,  and  made  them  sub- 
servient. I  chanced  upon  her  as  she  was  acting 
as  ticket-puncher  at  the  Yarmouth  station.  She 
was  well  set-up,  alert,  efficient,  helpful  in  giving 
information,  and,  above  all,  cheerful.  There 
were  two  capable  young  women  at  the  book- 
stall, too.  One  had  lost  a  brother  at  the  front, 
the  other  her  lover.  I  felt  that  they  regarded 
their  loss  as  one  item  in  the  big  national  ac- 
counting. They  were  heroically  cheerful  in 
"doing  their  bit." 

Throughout  my  stay  in  England  I  searched 
for,  but  could  not  find,  the  self-effacing  spinster 
of  former  days.  In  her  place  was  a  capable 
woman,  bright-eyed,  happy.  She  was  occupied 
and  bustled  at  her  work.  She  jumped  on  and 
off  moving  vehicles  with  the  alertness,  if  not 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  55 

the  unconsciousness,  of  the  expert  male.  She 
never  let  me  stand  in  omnibus  or  subway,  but 
quickly  gave  me  her  seat,  as  indeed  she  in- 
sisted upon  doing  for  elderly  gentlemen  as  well. 
The  British  woman  had  found  herself  and  her 
muscles.  England  was  a  world  of  women — 
women  in  uniforms;  there  was  the  army  of 
nurses,  and  then  the  messengers,  porters,  ele- 
vator hands,  tram  conductors,  bank  clerks, 
bookkeepers,  shop  attendants.  They  each 
seemed  to  challenge  the  humble  stranger, 
"Superfluous?  Not  I,  I'm  a  recruit  for  na- 
tional service!"  Even  a  woman  doing  time- 
honored  womanly  work  moved  with  an  air  of 
distinction;  she  dusted  a  room  for  the  good  of 
her  country.  Just  one  glimpse  was  I  given  of 
the  old-time  daughter  of  Eve,  when  a  ticket- 
collector  at  Reading  said :  *  'I  can 't  punch  your 
ticket.  Don't  you  see  I'm  eating  an  apple?" 

One  of  the  reactions  of  the  wider  functioning 
of  brain  and  muscle  which  struck  me  most  for- 
cibly was  the  increased  joyfulness  of  women. 
They  were  happy  in  their  work,  happy  in  the 
thought  of  rendering  service,  so  happy  that  the 
poignancy  of  individual  loss  was  carried  more 
easily. 

This  cheerfulness  is  somewhat  gruesomely 
voiced  in  a  cartoon  in  Punch  touching  on  the 


56       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

allowance  given  to  the  soldier's  wife.  She  re- 
marks, "This  war  is  'eaven — twenty-five  shil- 
lings a  week  and  no  'usband  bothering  about!" 
We  have  always  credited  Punch  with  knowing 
England.  Truth  stands  revealed  by  a  thrust, 
however  cynical,  when  softened  by  challenging 
humor. 

There  was  no  discipline  in  the  pension  sys- 
tem. No  work  was  required.  The  case  of  a 
girl  I  met  in  a  country  town  was  common. 
She  was  working  in  a  factory  earning  eleven 
shillings  a  week.  A  day  or  two  later  I  saw  her, 
and  she  told  me  she  had  stopped  work,  as  she 
had  "married  a  soldier,  and  'e's  gone  to  France, 
and  I  get  twelve  and  six  separation  allowance 
a  week. ' '  Never  did  the  strange  English  name, 
"separation  allowance,"  seem  more  appropri- 
ate for  the  wife's  pension  than  in  this  girl's 
story.  Little  wonder  was  it  that  in  the  early 
months  of  the  war  there  was  some  riotous  living 
among  soldiers '  wives ! 

And  the  comments  of  women  of  influence  on 
the  drunkenness  and  waste  of  money  on  foolish 
finery  were  as  striking  to  me  as  the  sordid  con- 
dition itself.  The  woman  chairman  of  a  Board 
of  Poor  Law  Guardians  in  the  north  of  England 
told  me  that  when  her  fellow-members  sug- 
gested that  Parliament  ought  to  appoint  com- 


IN  GKEAT  BRITAIN  57 

mittees  to  disburse  the  separation  allowances, 
she  opposed  them  with  the  heroic  philosophy 
that  women  can  be  trained  in  wisdom  only  by 
freedom  to  err,  that  a  sense  of  responsibility 
had  never  been  cultivated  in  them,  and  the 
country  would  have  to  bear  the  consequences. 
In  reply  to  my  inquiry  as  to  how  the  Guardians 
received  these  theories,  I  learned  that  "they 
knew  she  was  right  and  dropped  their  plan." 

The  faith  of  leading  women  that  experience 
would  be  the  best  teacher  for  the  soldier's  wife 
has  been  justified.  A  labor  leader  in  the  Mid- 
lands told  me  that  an  investigation  by  his  trade 
union  showed  that  only  one  hundred  women  in 
the  ten  thousand  cases  inquired  into  were  mis- 
spending their  allowances.  And  when  I  was 
visiting  a  board  school  in  a  poor  district  of 
London,  and  remarked  to  the  head  teacher  that 
the  children  looked  well  cared  for,  she  told  me 
that  never  had  they  been  so  well  fed  and  clothed. 
There  seemed  no  doubt  in  her  mind  that  it  was 
best  to  have  the  family  budget  in  the  hands  of 
the  mother.  In  the  sordid  surroundings  of  the 
mean  streets  of  great  cities,  there  is  developing 
in  women  practical  wisdom  and  a  fine  sense  of 
individual  responsibility. 

Perhaps  of  greater  significance  than  just  how 
separation  allowances  are  being  spent  is  the  fact 


58        MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

that  women  have  discovered  that  their  work  as 
housewives  and  mothers  has  a  value  recognized 
by  governments  in  hard  cash.  It  makes  one 
speculate  as  to  whether  wives  in  the  warring 
nations  will  step  back  without  a  murmur  into 
the  old-time  dependence  on  one  man,  or  whether 
these  simple  women  may  contribute  valuable 
ideas  towards  the  working  out  of  sound  schemes 
of  motherhood  pensions. 

The  women  of  Great  Britain  are  experiencing 
economic  independence,  they  are  living  in  an 
atmosphere  of  recognition  of  the  value  of  their 
work  as  housewives  and  mothers.  Women 
leaders  in  all  classes  give  no  indication  of  re- 
garding pensions  or  remuneration  in  gainful 
pursuits  as  other  than  permanent  factors  in 
social  development,  and  much  of  the  best 
thought  of  men  as  well  as  women  is  centered 
on  group  experiments  in  domestic  cooperation, 
in  factory  canteens,  in  municipal  kitchens, 
which  are  a  natural  concomitant  to  the  wider 
functioning  of  women. 

Great  Britain  is  not  talking  about  feminism, 
it  is  living  it.  Perhaps  nothing  better  illus- 
trates the  national  acceptance  of  the  fact  than 
the  widespread  amusement  touched  with  de- 
rision caused  by  the  story  of  the  choleric  gen- 
tlemen who,  on  being  asked  at  the  time  of  one 


IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  59 

of  the  government  registrations  whether  his 
wife  was  dependent  upon  him  or  not,  roared  in 
rage,  "Well,  if  my  wife  isn't  dependent  on  me, 
I'd  like  to  know  what  man  she  is  dependent 
on!" 

Only  second  to  Britain's  lesson  for  us  in  the 
self-reliance  of  its  women,  and  the  thorough 
mobilization  of  their  labor-power  and  executive 
ability,  is  its  lesson  in  protection  for  all  indus- 
trial workers.  It  stands  as  one  people  against 
the  present  enemy,  and  in  its  effort  does  not  • 
fail  to  give  thought  to  race  conservation  for  the 
future. 


IV 
MOBILIZING  WOMEN  IN  FRANCE 

COMPAEED  with  the  friction  in  the  mo- 
bilization of  woman-power  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, the  readjustment  in  the  lives  of  women 
in  France  was  like  the  opening  out  of  some  har- 
monious pageant  in  full  accord  with  popular 
sympathy.  But  who  has  not  said,  ''France  is 
different!" 

It  is  different,  and  in  nothing  more  so  than 
in  its  attitude  toward  its  women.  Without  dis- 
cussion with  organizations  of  men,  without  hin- 
drance from  the  government,  women  filled  the 
gaps  in  the  industrial  army.  It  was  obvious 
that  the  new  workers,  being  unskilled,  would 
need  training;  the  government  threw  open  the 
technical  schools  to  them.  A  spirit  of  hospital- 
ity, of  helpfulness,  of  common  sense,  reigned. 

And  it  was  not  only  in  industry  that  France 
showed  herself  wise.  I  found  that  the  govern- 
ment had  cooperated  unreservedly  with  all  the 
philanthropic  work  of  women  and  had  given 
them  a  wide  sphere  in  which  they  could  rise 

60 


IN  FRANCE  61 

above  amateurish  effort  and  carry  out  plans 
calling  for  administrative  ability. 

When  the  Conseil  National  des  Femmes  Fran- 
gaises  inaugurated  its  work  to  bring  together 
the  scattered  families  of  Belgium  and  northern 
France,  and  when  the  Association  pour  PAide 
Fraternelle  aux  fivacues  Alsaciens-Lorrains  be- 
gan its  work  for  the  dispersed  peoples  of  the 
provinces,  an  order  was  issued  by  the  govern- 
ment to  every  prefect  to  furnish  lists  of  all 
refugees  in  his  district  to  the  headquarters  of 
the  women's  societies  in  Paris.  It  was  through 
this  good  will  on  the  part  of  the  central  govern- 
ment that  these  societies  were  able  to  bring  to- 
gether forty  thousand  Belgian  families,  and  to 
clothe  and  place  in  school,  or  at  work,  the  entire 
dispersed  population  of  the  reconquered  dis- 
tricts of  Alsace-Lorraine. 

Nor  did  these  societies  cease  work  with  the 
completion  of  their  initial  effort.  They  turned 
themselves  into  employment  bureaus  and  with 
the  aid  and  sanction  of  the  government  found 
work  for  the  thousands  of  women  who  were 
thrown  out  of  employment.  They  had  the  ma- 
chinery to  accomplish  their  object,  the  Council 
being  an  old  established  society  organized 
throughout  the  country,  and  the  Association  to 
Aid  the  Refugees  from  Alsace-Lorraine  (a  non- 


62       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWEE 

partisan  name  adopted,  by  the  way,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  to  cover 
for  the  moment  the  patriotic  work  of  the  leading 
suffrage  society)  had  active  units  in  every  pre- 
fecture. 

One  of  the  admirable  private  philanthropies 
was  the  canteen  at  the  St.  Lazarre  station  in 
Paris.  I  am  tempted  to  single  it  out  because 
its  organizer,  Countess  de  Berkaim,  told  me  that 
in  all  the  months  she  had  been  running  it — and 
it  was  open  twenty-four  hours  of  the  day — not  a 
single  volunteer  had  been  five  minutes  late. 
The  canteen  was  opened  in  February,  1915,  with 
a  reading  and  rest  room.  Six  hundred  sol- 
diers a  day  have  been  fed.  The  two  big  rooms 
donated  by  the  railway  for  the  work  were 
charming  with  their  blue  and  white  checked 
curtains,  dividing  kitchen  from  restaurant  and 
rest  room  from  reading  room.  The  work  is  no 
small  monument  to  the  reliability  and  organiz- 
ing faculty  of  French  women. 

It  was  in  France,  too,  that  I  found  the  group 
of  women  who  realized  that  the  permanent 
change  which  the  war  was  making  in  the  rela- 
tion of  women  to  society  needed  fundamental 
handling.  Mile.  Valentine  Thomson,  founder 
of  La  Vie  Feminine,  held  that  not  only  was  the 
war  an  economic  struggle  and  not  only  must 


IN  FRANCE  63 

the  financial  power  of  the  combatants  rest  on 
the  labor  of  women,  but  the  future  of  the  na- 
tions will  largely  depend  upon  the  attitude 
which  women  take  toward  their  new  obligations. 
Realizing  that  business  education  would  be  a 
determining  factor  in  that  attitude,  Mile.  Thom- 
son persuaded  her  father,  who  was  then  Min- 
ister of  Commerce,  to  send  out  an  official  recom- 
mendation to  the  Chambers  of  Commerce  to 
open  the  commercial  schools  to  girls.  The  ad- 
vice was  very  generally  followed,  but  as  Paris 
refused,  a  group  of  women,  backed  by  the  Min- 
istry, founded  a  school  in  which  were  given 
courses  of  instruction  in  the  usual  business  sub- 
jects, and  lectures  on  finance,  commercial  law 
and  international  trade. 

Mile.  Thomson  herself  turned  her  business 
gifts  to  good  use  in  a  successful  effort  to  build 
up  for  the  immediate  benefit  of  artists  and 
workers  the  doll  trade  of  which  France  was 
once  supreme  mistress.  Exhibitions  of  the  art, 
old  and  new,  were  held  in  many  cities  in  the 
United  States,  in  South  America  and  in  Eng- 
land. The  dolls  went  to  the  hearts  of  lovers  of 
beauty,  and  what  promised  surer  financial  re- 
turn, to  the  hearts  of  the  children. 

To  do  something  for  France — that  stood  first 
in  the  minds  of  the  initiators  of  this  commercial 


64       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

project.  They  knew  her  people  must  be  em- 
ployed. And  next,  the  desire  to  bring  back 
charm  to  an  old  art  prompted  their  effort. 
Mile.  Thomson  fully  realizes  just  what  "Made 
in  Germany"  signifies.  The  peoples  of  the 
world  have  had  their  taste  corrupted  by  floods 
of  the  cheap  and  tawdry.  Germany  has  been 
steadily  educating  us  to  demand  quantity,  quan- 
tity mountains  high.  There  is  promise  that  the 
doll  at  least  will  be  rescued  by  France  and  made 
worth  the  child's  devotion. 

In  industry,  as  well  as  in  all  else,  one  feels 
that  in  France  there  has  not  been  so  much  a 
revolution  as  an  orderly  development.  Women 
were  in  munition  factories  even  before  the  war, 
the  number  has  merely  swelled.  The  women 
of  the  upper  and  lower  bourgeois  class  always 
knew  their  husband's  business,  the  one  could 
manage  the  shop,  the  other  could  bargain  with 
the  best  of  them  as  to  contracts  and  output. 
Women  were  trained  as  bookkeepers  and  clerks 
under  Napoleon  I;  he  wanted  men  as  soldiers, 
and  so  decreed  women  should  go  into  business. 
And  the  woman  of  the  aristocratic  class  has 
merely  slipped  out  of  her  seclusion  as  if  putting 
aside  an  old-fashioned  garment,  and  now  carries 
on  her  philanthropies  in  more  serious  and  co- 
ordinated manner.  We  know  the  practical  busi- 


IN  FRANCE  65 

ness  experience  possessed  by  French  women, 
and  so  are  prepared  to  learn  that  many  a 
big  commercial  enterprise,  the  owner  having 
gone  to  the  front,  is  now  directed  by  his  capable 
wife.  That  is  but  a  development,  too,  is  it  not! 
For  we  had  all  heard  long  ago  of  Mme.  Duval, 
even  if  we  had  not  eaten  at  her  restaurants, 
and  though  we  had  never  bought  a  ribbon  or  a 
carpet  at  the  Bon  Marche,  we  had  heard  of  the 
woman  who  helped  break  through  old  merchant 
habits  and  gave  the  world  the  department  store. 

But  nothing  has  been  more  significant  in  its 
growth  during  the  war  than  the  small  enter- 
prises in  which  the  husband  and  wife  in  the 
domestic  munition  shop,  laboring  side  by  side 
with  a  little  group  of  assistants,  have  been  turn- 
ing out  marvels  of  skill.  The  man  is  now  in  the 
trenches  fighting  for  France,  and  the  woman 
takes  command  and  leads  the  industrial  bat- 
talion to  victory.  She  knows  she  fights  for 
France. 

A  word  more  about  her  business,  for  she  is 
playing  an  economic  part  that  brings  us  up  at 
attention.  She  may  be  solving  the  problem  of 
adjustment  of  home  and  work  so  puzzling  to 
women.  There  are  just  such  domestic  shops 
dotted  all  over  the  map  of  France ;  in  the  Paris 
district  alone  there  are  over  eighteen  hundred 


66        MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

of  them.  The  conditions  are  so  excellent  and 
the  ruling  wages  so  high,  that  the  minimum 
wage  law  passed  in  1915  applied  only  to  the 
sweated  home  workers  in  the  clothing  trade, 
and  not  to  the  domestic  munition  shops. 

A  commission  which  included  in  its  member- 
ship a  trade  unionist,  sent  by  the  British  gov- 
ernment in  the  darkest  days  to  find  why  it  was 
that  France  could  produce  so  much  more  am- 
munition than  England,  found  these  tiny  work- 
shops, with  their  primitive  equipment,  per- 
forming miracles.  The  output  was  huge  and  of 
the  best.  The  woman,  when  at  the  head,  seemed 
to  turn  out  more  than  the  man,  she  worked  with 
such  undying  energy.  The  commission  said  it 
was  the  "spirit  of  France"  that  drove  the 
workers  forward  and  renewed  the  flagging  en- 
ergies. But  even  the  trade  unionist  referred 
to  the  absence  of  all  opposition  to  women  on 
the  part  of  organizations  of  men.  Perhaps 
the  spirit  of  France  is  undying  because  in  it  is 
a  spirit  of  unity  and  harmony. 

It  seemed  to  me  there  was  one  very  practical 
explanation  of  the  unmistakable  energy  of  the 
French  worker,  both  man  and  woman.  The 
whole  nation  has  the  wise  custom  of  taking  meal 
time  with  due  seriousness.  The  break  at  noon 
in  the  great  manufactories,  as  well  as  in  the 


IN  FRANCE  67 

family  workshop,  is  long,  averaging  one  hour 
and  a  half,  and  reaching  often  to  two  hours. 
The  French  never  gobble.  Because  food  is 
necessary  to  animal  life,  they  do  not  on  that 
account  take  a  puritanical  view  of  it.  They 
dare  enjoy  it,  in  spite  of  its  physiological  bear- 
ing. They  sit  down  to  it,  dwell  upon  it,  get  its 
flavor,  and  after  the  meal  they  sit  still  and  as 
a  nation  permit  themselves  unabashed  to  enjoy 
the  sensation  of  hunger  appeased.  That's  the 
common  sense  spirit  of  France. 

Of  course  the  worker  is  renewed,  hurls  her- 
self on  the  work  again  with  ardor,  and  losing  no 
time  through  fatigue,  throws  off  an  enormous 
output. 

Wages  perform  their  material  share  in  spur- 
ring the  worker.  Louis  Barthou  says  that  the 
woman's  average  is  eight  francs  a  day.  Long 
ago — it  seems  long  ago — she  could  earn  at  best 
five  francs  in  the  Paris  district.  She  works  on 
piece  work  now,  getting  the  same  rate  as  men. 
And  think  of  it! — this  must  indeed  be  because 
of  the  spirit  of  France — this  woman  does  bet- 
ter than  men  on  the  light  munition  work,  and 
equals,  yes,  equals  her  menfolk  on  the  heavy 
shells.  I  do  not  say  this,  a  commission  of  men 
says  it,  a  commission  with  a  trade  union  member 
to  boot. 


68       MOBILIZING  -WOMAN-POWER 

The  coming  of  the  woman  worker  with  the 
spirit  of  win-the-war  in  her  heart  is  the  same 
in  France  as  elsewhere,  only  here  her  coming 
is  more  gracious.  Twelve  hundred  easily  take 
up  work  on  the  Paris  subway.  They  are  the 
wives  of  mobilized  employees.  The  offices  of 
the  Post,  the  Telegraph  and  Telephone  bristle 
with  women,  of  course,  for  eleven  thousand 
have  taken  the  places  of  men.  Some  seven  thou- 
sand fill  up  the  empty  positions  on  the  rail- 
ways, serving  even  as  conductors  on  through 
trains.  Their  number  has  swollen  to  a  half 
million  in  munitions,  and  to  over  half  that  num- 
ber in  powder  mills  and  marine  workshops ;  in 
civil  establishments  over  three  hundred  thou- 
sand render  service ;  and  even  the  conservative 
banking  world  welcomes  the  help  of  some  three 
thousand  women. 

Out  on  the  land  the  tally  is  greatest  of  all. 
Every  woman  from  the  village  bends  over  the 
bosom  of  France,  urging  fertility.  The  gov- 
ernment called  them  in  the  first  hours  of  the 
conflict.  Viviani  spoke  the  word: — 

"The  departure  for  the  army  of  all  those  who  can 
carry  arms,  leaves  the  work  in  the  fields  undone;  the 
harvest  is  not  yet  gathered  in ;  the  vintage  season  is 
near.  In  the  name  of  the  entire  nation  nnited  behind 
it,  I  make  an  appeal  to  your  courage,  and  to  that  of 


IN  FRANCE  69 

your  children,  whose  age  alone  and  not  their  valour, 
keeps  them  from  the  war. 

"I  ask  you  to  keep  on  the  work  in  the  fields,  to 
finish  gathering  in  the  year's  harvest,  to  prepare 
that  of  the  coming  year.  You  cannot  render  your 
country  a  greater  service. 

"It  is  not  for  you,  but  for  her,  that  I  appeal  to 
your  hearts. 

"You  must  safeguard  your  own  living,  the  feeding 
of  the  urban  populations  and  especially  the  feeding 
of  those  who  are  defending  the  frontier,  as  well  as 
the  independence  of  the  country,  civilization  and  jus- 
tice. 

"Up,  then,  French  women,  young  children,  daugh- 
ters and  sons  of  the  country!  Replace  on  the  field 
of  work  those  who  are  on  the  field  of  battle.  Strive 
to  show  them  to-morrow  the  cultivated  soil,  the  har- 
vests all  gathered  in,  the  fields  sown. 

"In  hours  of  stress  like  the  present,  there  is  no 
ignoble  work.  Everything  that  helps  the  country  is 
great.  Up !  Act !  To  work !  To-morrow  there  will 
be  glory  for  everyone. 

"Long  live  the  Republic!    Long  live  France!'* 

Women  instantly  responded  to  the  proclama- 
tion. Only  the  old  men  were  left  to  help,  only 
decrepit  horses,  rejected  by  the  military  requisi- 
tion. More  than  once  I  journeyed  far  into  the 
country,  but  I  never  saw  an  able-bodied  man. 
What  a  gap  to  be  filled ! — but  the  French  peas- 


70       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

ant  woman  filled  it.  She  harvested  that  first 
year,  she  has  sowed  and  garnered  season  by 
season  ever  since.  Men,  horses,  machinery 
were  lacking,  the  debit  yawned,  but  she  piled  up 
a  credit  to  meet  it  by  unflagging  toil. 

With  equal  devotion  and  with  initiative  and 
power  of  organization  the  woman  of  leisure  has 
"carried  on."  The  three  great  societies  cor- 
responding with  our  Bed  Cross,  the  Societe  de 
Secours  aux  Blesses,  the  Union  des  Femmes  de 
France,  and  the  Association  des  Dames  Fran- 
gaises,  have  established  fifteen  hundred  hos- 
pitals with  one  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand 
beds,  and  put  forty-three  thousand  nurses  in 
active  service.  Efficiency  has  kept  pace  with 
this  superb  effort,  as  is  testified  to  by  many  a 
war  cross,  many  a  medal,  and  the  cross  of  the 
Legion  of  Honor. 

Up  to  the  level  of  her  means  France  sets  ex- 
amples in  works  of  human  salvage  worthy  the 
imitation  of  all  nations.  The  mairie  in  each  ar- 
rondissement  has  become  no  less  than  a  com- 
munity center.  The  XTV  arrondissement  in 
Paris  is  but  the  pattern  for  many.  Here  the 
wife  of  the  mayor,  Mme.  Brunot,  has  made  the 
stiff  old  building  a  human  place.  The  card 
catalogue  carrying  information  about  every 
soldier  from  the  district,  gives  its  overwhelm- 


IN  FRANCE  71 

ing  news  each  day  gently  to  wife  or  mother, 
through  the  lips  of  Mme.  Brunot  or  her  women 
assistants.  The  work  of  Les  Amis  des  Or- 
phelins  de  Guerre  centers  here,  the  "adopted" 
child  receiving  from  the  good  maire  the  gifts 
in  money  and  presents  sent  by  the  Americans 
who  are  generously  filling  the  role  of  parent. 
The  widows  of  the  soldiers  gather  here  for 
comfort  and  advice. 

And  the  mairie  holds  a  spirit  of  experiment. 
It  houses  not  only  courage  and  sympathy,  but 
progress.  The  "XIV"  has  ventured  on  a  Cui- 
sine Populaire  under  Mme.  Brunot 's  wholesome 
guidance.  And  so  many  other  arrondissements 
have  followed  suit  that  Paris  may  be  regarded 
as  making  a  great  experiment  in  the  municipal 
feeding  of  her  people.  It  is  not  charity,  the 
food  is  paid  for.  In  the  "XIV"  fifteen  hun- 
dred persons  eat  a  meal  or  two  at  the  mairie 
each  day.  The  charge  is  seventy-five  centimes 
— fifteen  cents,  and  one  gets  a  soup,  meat  and 
a  vegetable,  and  fruit. 

The  world  seems  to  be  counselling  us  that  if 
we  wish  to  be  well  and  cheaply  fed  we  must  go 
where  there  are  experts  to  cook,  where  buying 
is  done  in  quantity,  and  where  the  manager 
knows  about  nutritive  values. 

If  a  word  of  praise  is  extended  to  the  maire 


72       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

of  the  XIV  arrondissement  for  his  very  splen- 
did work,  an  example  to  all  France,  he  quickly 
urges,  "Ah,  but  Mme.  Brunot!"  And  so  it  is 
always,  if  you  exclaim,  "Oh,  the  spirit  of  the 
men  of  France  I"  and  a  Frenchman's  ears  catch 
your  words,  he  will  correct,  "Ah,  but  the 
women I" 

And  the  women  do  stand  above  all  other 
women,  they  have  had  such  opportunity  for 
heroism.  Whose  heart  does  not  beat  the  faster 
when  the  names  Soisson  and  Mme.  Macherez 
are  spoken?  The  mayor  and  the  council  gone, 
she  assumes  the  office  and  keeps  order  while 
German  shells  fall  thick  on  the  town.  And 
then  the  enemy  enters,  and  asks  for  the  mayor, 
and  she  replies,  "Le  maire,  c'est  moi."  And 
then  do  we  women  not  like  to  think  of  Mile. 
Deletete  staying  at  her  post  in  the  telegraph 
office  in  Houplines  in  spite  of  German  bombard- 
ments, and  calmly  facing  tormentors,  when  they 
smashed  her  instruments  and  threatened  her 
with  death.  One-tenth  of  France  in  the  enemy 's 
hands,  and  in  each  village  and  town  some  woman 
staying  behind  to  nurse  the  sick  and  wounded, 
to  calm  the  population  when  panic  threatens,  to 
stand  invincible  between  the  people  and  their 
conquerors ! 

It  is  very  splendid! — the- French  man  holding 


IN  FRANCE  73 

steady  at  the  front,  the  French  woman  an  un- 
yielding second  line  of  defense.  But  what  of 
France?  Words  of  praise  must  not  swallow 
our  sense  of  obligation.  Let  us  with  our  hun- 
dred millions  of  people  face  the  figures.  The 
death  rate  in  France,  not  counting  the  military 
loss,  is  twenty  per  thousand,  with  a  birth  rate 
of  eight  per  thousand.  In  Paris  for  the  year 
ending  August,  1914,  there  were  forty-eight 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventeen  births ;  in 
the  year  ending  in  the  same  month,  1916,  the 
births  dropped  to  twenty-six  thousand  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-nine.  The  total  deaths  for 
that  year  in  all  France  were  one  million,  one 
hundred  thousand,  and  the  births  three  hundred 
and  twelve  thousand. 

France  is  profoundly,  infinitely  sad.  She 
has  cause.  I  shall  never  forget  looking  into 
the  very  depths  of  her  sorrow  when  I  was  at 
Creil.  A  great  drive  was  in  progress,  the 
wounded  were  being  brought  down  from  the 
front,  troops  hurried  forward.  Four  different 
regiments  passed  as  I  sat  at  dejeuner.  The 
restaurant,  full  of  its  noonday  patrons,  was  a 
typical  French  cafe  giving  on  the  street.  We 
could  have  reached  out  and  touched  the  sol- 
diers. They  marched  without  music,  without 
song  or  word,  marched  in  silence.  Some  of  the 


74       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

men  were  from  this  very  town ;  their  little  sons, 
with  set  faces,  too,  walked  beside  them  and  had 
brought  them  bunches  of  flowers.  The  people 
in  the  restaurant  never  spoke  above  a  whisper, 
and  when  the  troops  passed  were  as  silent  as 
death.  There  was  no  cheer,  but  just  a  long, 
wistful  gaze,  the  soldiers  looking  into  their  eyes, 
they  into  the  soldiers'. 

But  France  can  bear  her  burden,  can  solve 
her  problem  if  we  lift  our  full  share  from  her 
bent  shoulders.  Her  women  can  save  the  chil- 
dren if  the  older  men,  relieved  by  our  young 
soldiers,  come  back  from  the  trenches,  setting 
women  free  for  the  work  of  child  saving. 
France  can  rebuild  her  villages  if  her  supreme 
architects,  her  skilled  workers  are  replaced  in 
the  trenches  by  our  armies.  France  can  renew 
her  spirit  and  save  her  body  if  her  experts  in 
science,  if  her  poets  and  artists  are  sent  back 
to  her,  and  our  less  great  bare  their  breasts  to 
the  Huns. 


V 
MOBILIZING  WOMEN  IN  GERMANY 

THE  military  mobilization  of  Germany  was 
no  more  immediate  and  effective  than  the 
call  to  arms  for  women.  On  August  1,  1914, 
the  summons  went  out,  and  German  women  were 
at  once  part  of  the  smooth  running  machine  of 
efficiency. 

The  world  says  the  Kaiser  has  been  prepar- 
ing for  war  for  forty  years.  The  world  means 
that  he  has  been  preparing  the  fighting  force. 
The  sword  and  guns  were  to  be  ready.  But 
the  military  arm  of  the  nation,  the  German  gov- 
ernment believes,  is  but  the  first  line  of  attack; 
the  people  are  the  second  line,  and  so  they,  too, 
in  all  their  life  activities,  were  not  forgotten. 
The  military  aristocracy  has  never  neglected 
the  function  of  women  in  the  state.  The  defini- 
tion of  their  function  may  differ  from  ours, 
but  that  there  is  a  function  is  recognized,  and  it 
is  related  to  the  other  vital  social  organs. 

Slowly,  through  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  there  had  grown  up  clubs  among  Ger- 

75 


76       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

man  women  focusing  on  a  definite  bit  of  work, 
or  crystallizing  about  an  idea.  Germany  even 
had  suffrage  societies.  Politics,  however,  were 
forbidden  by  the  government ;  women  were  not 
allowed  to  hang  on  the  fringe  of  a  meeting 
held  to  discuss  men's  politics.  But  the  women 
of  the  Fatherland  were  free  to  pool  their  ideas 
in  philanthropic  and  hygienic  corners,  and  ven- 
ture out  at  times  on  educational  highways. 
The  Froebel  societies  had  many  a  contest  with 
the  government,  for  to  the  military  mind,  the 
gentle  pedagogue's  theories  seemed  subversive 
of  discipline  as  enforced  by  spurs  and  bayonets. 
These  clubs,  covering  every  trade  and  profes- 
sion, every  duty  and  every  aspiration  of  women, 
were  dotted  over  the  German  Empire.  At 
last  they  drew  together  in  a  federation.  The 
government  looked  on.  It  saw  a  machine  cre- 
ated, and  believing  in  thorough  organization, 
no  doubt  gave  thought  to  the  possibilities  of 
the  Bund  deutscher,  Frauenvereine.  At  the 
outbreak  qf  war/ Dr.  Gertrud  Baumer  was 
president  of  the  Bund.  She  was  a  leader  of 
great  ability,  marshalling  half  a  million  of 
women.  No  other  organization  was  so  wide- 
spread and  well-knit,  except  perhaps  Der  Va- 
terlandische  Frauenverein  with  its  two  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  fifty  branches.  It  was 


IN  GERMANY  77 

evangelical  and  military.  The  Empress  was  its 
patron.  Its  popular  name  is  the  "Armee  der 
Kaiserin. ' ' 

There  the  two  great  national  societies  stood 
— one  aristocratic,  the  other  democratic,  one 
appealing  to  the  ruling  class,  the  other  holding 
in  bonds  of  fellowship  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the 
urban  and  the  rural,  the  professional  and  the 
industrial  woman. 

Every  belligerent  president  or  premier  has 
faced  exactly  the  same  perplexity.  What 
woman,  what  society,  is  to  be  recognized  as 
leader?  The  question  has  brought  beads  of 
perspiration  to  the  foreheads  of  statesmen. 

France  solved  the  difficulty  urbanely.  It  said 
"yes"  to  each  and  all.  It  promised  coopera- 
tion and  kept  the  promise.  By  affably — always 
affably  and  hospitably — accepting  this  service 
from  one  society,  and  suggesting  another  press- 
ing need  to  its  competitor,  it  sorted  out  capabili- 
ties, and  warded  off  duplication.  Perhaps  this 
did  not  bring  the  fullest  efficiency,  but  the  loss 
was  more  than  made  up,  no  doubt,  by  a  free  field 
for  initiative.  Britain  ignored  all  existing  or- 
ganizations of  women,  and  after  a  year  and  a 
half  of  puzzlement  created  a  separate  govern- 
ment department  for  their  mobilization.  Amer- 
ica struck  out  still  another  course.  It  took  the 


78       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

heads  of  several  national  societies,  bound  them 
in  one  committee,  to  which  it  gave,  perhaps  with 
the  idea  of  avoiding  any  danger  of  friction, 
neither  power  nor  funds. 

Germany  faced  the  same  critical  moment  for 
decision.  The  government  wanted  efficient 
use  of  woman-power  on  the  land,  in  the  factory, 
in  the  home,  and  that  quickly.  It  made  use 
of  the  best  existing  machinery.  Dr.  Gertrud 
Baumer  visited  the  Ministerium  des  Innern,  and 
on  August  1  she  issued  a  call  for  the  mobiliza- 
tion of  women  for  service  to  the  Fatherland  in 
the  Nationale  Frauendienst.  Under  the  aegis 
of  the  government,  with  the  national  treasury 
behind  her,  Dr.  Baumer  summoned  the  women 
of  the  Empire.  By  order,  every  woman  and 
every  organization  of  women  was  to  fall  in  line 
under  the  Frauendienst  in  each  village  and  city 
for  ''the  duration  of  the  war."1 

In  each  army  district,  the  government  ap- 
pointed a  woman  as  directress,  and  by  order  to 
town  and  provincial  authorities  made  the  Frau- 
endienst part  of  local  executive  affairs. 

Among  the  immediate  duties  laid  upon  the 
Frauendienst  by  the  authorities  was  the  task  of 

i"Die  Frauenvereine  jeder  Stadt  verbinden  sich  fur  die 
Dauer  des  Kriegea  zur  Organization  Nationaler  Frauendienst 
die  zu  Berlin  am  Iten  August  begriindet  wurde." 


IN  GERMANY  79 

registering  all  needy  persons,  of  providing 
cheap  eating  places,  opening  workrooms,  and 
setting  up  nurseries  for  children,  especially  for 
those  who  were  motherless  and  those  whose 
fathers  had  fallen  at  the  front  and  whose 
mothers  were  in  some  gainful  pursuit.  With 
these  duties  went  the  administrative  service  of 
cooperating  with  the  government  in  "keeping 
up  an  even  supply  of  foodstuffs,  and  controlling 
the  buying  and  selling  of  food.'* 

Germany  anticipated  as  did  no  other  bellig- 
erent the  unemployment  which  would  follow  a 
declaration  of  war,  and  prepared  to  meet  the 
condition.  A  great  deal  of  army  work,  such  as 
tent  sewing,  belts  for  cartridges,  bread  sacks, 
and  sheets  for  hospitals,  was  made  immediately 
available  for  the  women  thrown  out  of  luxury 
trades.  In  the  first  month  of  the  war  the  Frau- 
endienst  opened  work-rooms  in  all  great  cen- 
ters; machinery  was  installed  by  magic  and 
through  the  six  work-rooms  in  Berlin  alone 
twenty-three  thousand  women  were  given  paid 
employment  in  one  week. 

Such  efforts  could  not,  of  course,  absorb  the 
surplus  labor,  for  unemployment  was  very 
great.  Eighty  percent  of  the  women's  hat- 
makers  and  milliners  were  out  of  work,  seventy- 
two  percent  of  the  workers  in  glass  and  fifty- 


80       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

eight  percent  in  china.  The  Frauendienst  in- 
vestigated two  hundred  and  fifty-five  thousand 
needy  cases,  and  in  Berlin  alone  found  sixty 
thousand  women  who  had  lost  their  employ- 
ment. Charity  had  to  render  help.  Here, 
again,  it  is  an  example  of  the  alertness  of  the 
organization  and  its  close  connection  with  the 
government  that  the  Berlin  magistracy  deputed 
to  twenty-three  Hilfscommissionen  from  the 
Frauendienst  the  work  of  giving  advice  and 
charity  relief  to  the  unemployed.  Knitting 
rooms  were  opened,  clothing  depots,  mending 
rooms,  where  donated  clothing  was  repaired, 
and  in  one  month  fifty-six  thousand  orders  for 
milk,  five  hundred  thousand  for  bread,  and 
three  hundred  thousand  for  meals  were  dis- 
tributed for  the  city  authorities. 

*  \ 

The  adjustment  to  war  requirements  went  on 
more  quickly  in  Germany  than  in  any  other 
country.  Before  a  year  had  passed  the  sur- 
plus hands  had  been  absorbed,  and  a  shortage 
of  labor  power  was  beginning  to  be  felt. 

And  now  opens  the  war  drama  set  with  the 
same  scene  everywhere.  Women  hurry  for- 
ward to  take  up  the  burden  laid  down  by  men, 
and  to  assume  the  new  occupations  made  neces- 
sary by  the  organization  of  the  world  for  mili- 
tary conflict.  To  tell  of  Germany  is  merely  to 


IN  GERMANY  81 

speak  in  bigger  numbers.  Women  in  muni- 
tions? Of  course,  well  over  the  million  mark. 
Trolley  conductors  f  Of  course,  six  hundred  in 
Berlin  alone  before  the  first  Christmas. 
Women  are  making  the  fuses,  fashioning  the  big 
shells,  and  at  the  same  heavy  machines  used  by 
the  men.  That  speaks  volumes — the  same 
heavy  machines.  Great  Britain  and  France 
have  in  every  case  introduced  lighter  machinery 
for  their  women.  But,  whatever  the  conditions, 
in  Germany  the  women  are  handling  high  ex- 
plosives, sewing  heavy  saddlery,  operating  the 
heaviest  drill  machines.  Women  have  been  put 
on  the  "hardest  jobs  hitherto  filled  by  men." 
In  the  German-Luxemburg  Mining  and  Furnace 
Company  at  Differdingen,  they  are  found  doing 
work  at  the  slag  and  blast  furnaces  which  had 
always  required  men  of  great  endurance.  They 
work  on  the  same  shifts  as  the  men,  receive  the 
same  pay,  but  are  not  worked  overtime  "be- 
cause they  must  go  home  and  perform  their 
domestic  duties." 

One  feels  the  weight  of  the  German  system. 
Patient  women  shoulder  double  burdens.  -They 
always  did. 

In  the  Post  and  Telegraph  department  there 
is  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  women.  The  tele- 
phone service  is  entirely  in  their  hands,  and 


82        MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

running  more  smoothly  than  formerly.  Dr. 
Kathe  Schirmacher  declares  comfortingly  in  the 
Kriegsfrau  that  "one  must  not  forget  that  these 
women  know  many  important  bits  of  informa- 
tion— and  keep  silent."  Women  have  learned 
to  keep  a  secret! 

One  hundred  and  eighty  nurses,  experts  with 
the  X-ray,  were  in  the  front  line  dressing  sta- 
tions in  the  early  days  of  the  war,  and  before  a 
week  of  conflict  had  passed  women  were  in  the 
Field  Post,  and  Frau  Reimer,  organizer  of  offi- 
cial chauffeurs,  was  on  the  western  line  of  at- 
tack. 

Agriculture  claims  more  women  than  any  oc- 
cupation in  Germany.  They  were  always  on 
the  farm,  perhaps  they  are  happier  there  now 
since  they  themselves  are  in  command.  It  is 
said  that  "the  peasants  work  in  the  boots  and 
trousers  of  their  husbands  and  ride  in  the  sad- 
dle." War  has  liberated  German  women  from 
the  collar  and  put  them  on  horseback! 

But  strangest  and  most  unexpected  of  all  is 
the  professional  and  administrative  use  of 
women.  The  government  has  sent  women 
architects  and  interior  decorators  to  East  Prus- 
sia to  plan  and  carry  through  reconstruction 
work.  Over  a  hundred — to  be  exact,  one  hun- 
dred and  sixteen  at  last  accounts — have  taken 


IN  GERMANY  83 

the  places  of  men  in  administrative  departments 
connected  with  the  railways.  Many  widows 
who  have  shown  capacity  have  been  put  in  gov- 
ernment positions  of  importance  formerly  held 
by  their  husbands.  Women  have  become  farm 
managers,  superintendents  of  dairy  industries, 
and  representatives  of  landed  proprietors. 

The  disseminating  of  all  instruction  and  in- 
formation for  women  on  war  economies  was 
delegated  to  the  League  of  Women's  Domestic 
Science  Clubs.  The  Berlin  course  was  held  in 
no  less  a  place  than  the  Abgeordnetenhaus,  and 
the  Herrenhaus  opened  its  doors  wide  on  Rural 
Women's  Day  when  Agricultural  Week  was 
held  at  the  capital. 

When  the  full  history  of  the  war  comes  to  be 
written,  no  doubt  one  reason  for  Germany's 
marvelous  power  to  stand  so  long  against  the 
world  will  be  found  in  her  use  of  every  brain 
and  muscle  of  the  nation.  This  has  been  for 
her  no  exclusive  war.  Her  entire  people  to 
their  last  ounce  of  energy  have  been  engaged. 

And  this  supreme  service  on  the  part  of 
German  women  seeks  democratic  expression. 
From  them  comes  the  clearest,  bravest  word 
that  has  reached  us  across  the  border.  The 
most  hopeful  sign  is  this  manifesto  from  the 
suffrage  organizations  to  the  government: 


84       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

"Up  to  the  present  Germany  has  stood  in  the  low- 
est rank  of  nations  as  regards  women's  rights.  In 
most  civilized  lands  women  already  have  been  given 
a  large  share  in  public  affairs.  German  women  have 
been  granted  nothing  except  within  the  most  insig- 
nificant limits.  In  New  Zealand,  Australia  and  most 
American  States,  and  even  before  the  war  in  Finland 
and  Norway,  they  had  been  given  political  rights; 
to-day,  Sweden,  Russia  and  many  other  countries 
give  them  a  full  or  limited  franchise.  The  war  has 
brought  a  full  victory  to  the  women  of  England, 
Canada,  Russia  and  Denmark,  and  large  concessions 
are  within  sight  in  France,  Holland  and  Hungary. 

"Among  us  Germans  not  only  the  national  but 
even  the  commercial  franchise  is  denied,  and  even  a 
share  in  the  industrial  and  commercial  courts.  In 
the  demand  for  the  democratization  of  German  public 
life  our  legislators  do  not  seem  even  to  admit  the 
existence  of  women. 

"But  during  the  war  the  cooperation  of  women 
in  public  life  has  unostentatiously  grown  from  year 
to  year  until  to-day  the  number  of  women  engaged 
in  various  callings  in  Germany  exceeds  the  number  of 
men. 

"The  work  they  are  doing  includes  all  spheres  of 
male  activity;  without  them  it  would  no  longer  be 
possible  to  support  the  economic  life  of  the  people. 
Women  have  done  their  full  share  in  the  work  of 
the  community. 

"Does  not  this  performance  of  duty  involve  the 


IN  GERMANY  85 

right  to  share  in  the  building  up  and  extension  of 
the  social  order? 

"The  women  protest  against  this  lack  of  political 
rights,  in  virtue  both  of  their  work  for  the  com- 
munity and  of  their  work  as  human  beings.  They 
demand  political  equality  with  men.  They  demand 
the  direct,  equal  and  secret  franchise  for  all  legisla- 
tive bodies,  full  equality  in  the  communes  and  in 
legal  representation  of  their  interests. 

"This  first  joint  pronouncement  on  women's  de- 
mands will  be  followed  by  others  until  the  victory  of 
our  cause  is  won." 


VI 
WOMEN  OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA 

AMERICAN  women  have  begun  to  go  over 
the  top.  They  are  going  up  the  scaling- 
ladder  and  out  into  All  Man's  Land.  Perhaps 
love  of  adventure  tempts  them,  perhaps  love  of 
money,  or  a  fine  spirit  of  service,  but  whatever 
the  propelling  motive,  we  are  seeing  them  make 
the  venture. 

There  is  nothing  new  in  our  day  in  a  woman's 
being  paid  for  her  work — some  of  it.  But  she 
has  never  before  been  seen  in  America  em- 
ployed, for  instance,  as  a  section  hand  on  a  rail- 
way. The  gangs  are  few  and  small  as  yet,  but 
there  the  women  are  big  and  strong  specimens 
of  foreign  birth.  They  "trim"  the  ballast  and 
wield  the  heavy  "tamping"  tool  with  zest. 
They  certainly  have  muscles,  and  are  tempted 
to  use  them  vigorously  at  three  dollars  a  day. 

In  the  machine  shops  where  more  skill  than 
strength  is  called  for,  the  American  element 

with  its  quick  wits  and  deft  fingers  predom- 

86 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA       87 

inates.  Yonng  women  are  working  at  the  lathe 
with  so  much  precision  and  accuracy  that  solici- 
tude as  to  what  would  become  of  the  world  if 
all  its  men  marched  off  to  war  is  in  a  measure 
assuaged.  In  the  push  and  drive  of  the  indus- 
trial world,  women  are  handling  dangerous 
chemicals  in  making  flash  lights,  and  T.  N.  T. 
for  high  explosive  shells.  The  American  col- 
lege girl  is  not  as  yet  transmuting  her  prowess 
of  the  athletic  field  into  work  on  the  anvil,  as  is 
the  university  woman  in  England,  but  she  has 
demonstrated  her  manual  strength  and  skill  on 
the  farm  with  plough  and  harrow. 

Women  and  girls  answer  our  call  for  mes- 
senger service,  and  their  intelligence  and  cour- 
tesy are  an  improvement  upon  the  manners  of 
the  young  barbarians  of  the  race.  Women  op- 
erate elevators,  lifting  us  with  safety  to  the 
seventh  heaven,  or  plunging  us  with  precision 
to  the  depths.  There  were  those  at  first  who 
refused  to  entrust  their  lives  to  such  frail 
hands,  and  there  are  still  some  who  look  con- 
cerned when  they  see  a  woman  at  the  lever; 
but  on  the  whole  the  elevator  "girl"  has  gained 
the  confidence  of  her  public,  and  has  gained  it 
by  skill,  not  by  feminine  wiles,  for  even  men 
won't  shoot  into  space  with  a  woman  at  the 
helm  whose  sole  equipment  is  charm. 


88       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

With  need  of  less  skill  than  the  elevator  op- 
erator, but  more  patience  and  tact  in  managing 
human  nature,  the  woman  conductor  is  getting 
her  patrons  into  line.  We  are  still  a  little  em- 
barrassed in  her  presence.  We  try  not  to  stare 
at  the  well-set-up  woman  in  her  sensible  uni- 
form, while  she  on  her  part  tries  to  look  uncon- 
scious, and  with  much  dignity  accomplishes  the 
common  aim  much  more  successfully  than  do 
we.  She  is  so  attentive  to  her  duties,  so  courte- 
ous, and,  withal,  so  calm  and  serious  that  I  hope 
she  will  abide  with  us  longer  than  the  "duration 
of  the  war. ' ' 

In  short,  America  is  witnessing  the  begin- 
ning of  a  great  industrial  and  social  change,  and 
even  those  who  regard  the  situation  as  tem- 
porary cannot  doubt  that  the  experience  will 
have  important  reactions.  The  development  is 
more  advanced  than  it  was  in  Great  Britain  at 
a  corresponding  time,  for  even  before  the  United 
States  entered  the  conflict  women  were  being 
recruited  in  war  industries.  They  have  opened 
up  every  line  of  service.  There  is  not  an  oc- 
cupation in  which  a  woman  is  not  found. 

When  men  go  a-warring,  women  go  to  work. 

A  distinguished  general  at  the  end  of  the 
Cuban  War,  enlarging  upon  the  poet's  idea  of 
woman's  weeping  role  in  wartime,  said  in  a  pub- 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA       89 

lie  speech:  "When  the  country  called,  women 
put  guns  in  the  hands  of  their  soldier  boys  and 
bravely  sent  them  away.  After  the  good-byes 
were  said  there  was  nothing  for  these  women 
to  do  but  to  go  back  and  wait,  wait,  wait.  The 
excitement  of  battle  was  not  for  them.  It  was 
simply  a  season  of  anxiety  and  heartrending 
inactivity. "  Now  the  fact  is,  when  a  great  call 
to  arms  is  sounded  for  the  men  of  a  nation, 
women  enlist  in  the  industrial  army.  If  women 
did  indeed  sit  at  home  and  weep,  the  enemy 
would  soon  conquer. 

The  dull  census  tells  the  thrilling  story. 
Before  our  Civil  War  women  were  found  in 
less  than  a  hundred  trades,  at  its  close  in  over 
four  hundred.  The  census  of  1860  gives  two 
hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand  women  in 
gainful  pursuits ;  that  of  1870,  one  million,  eight 
hundred  and  thirty-six  thousand.  Of  the 
Transvaal  at  war,  this  story  was  told  to  me 
by  an  English  officer.  He  led  a  small  band  of 
soldiers  down  into  the  Boer  country,  on  the 
north  from  Rhodesia,  as  far  as  he  dared.  He 
"did  not  see  a  man,"  even  boys  as  young  as 
fifteen  had  joined  the  army.  But  at  the  post 
of  economic  duty  stood  the  Boer  woman;  she 
was  tending  the  herds  and  carrying  on  all  the 
work  of  the  farm.  She  was  the  base  of  sup- 


90       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

plies.  That  was  why  the  British  finally  put  her 
in  a  concentration  camp.  Her  man  could  not 
be  beaten  with  her  at  his  back. 

War  compels  women  to  work.  That  is  one  of 
its  merits.  Women  are  forced  to  use  body  and 
mind,  they  are  not,  cannot  be  idlers.  Perhaps 
that  is  the  reason  military  nations  hold  sway  so 
long;  their  reign  continues,  not  because  they 
draw  strength  from  the  conquered  nation,  but 
because  their  women  are  roused  to  exertion. 
Active  mothers  ensure  a  virile  race. 

The  peaceful  nation,  if  its  women  fall  victims 
to  the  luxury  which  rapidly  increasing  wealth 
brings,  will  decay.  If  there  come  no  spiritual 
awakening,  no  sense  of  responsibility  of  serv- 
ice, then  perhaps  war  alone  can  save  it.  The 
routing  of  idleness  and  ease  by  compulsory 
labor  is  the  good  counterbalancing  some  of  the 
evil. 

The  rapidly  increasing  employment  of  women 
to-day,  then,  is  the  usual,  and  happy,  accom- 
paniment of  war.  But  the  development  has  its 
opponents,  and  that  is  nothing  new,  either. 
Let  us  look  them  over  one  by  one.  The  most 
mischievous  objector  is  the  person,  oftenest  a 
woman,  who  says  the  war  will  be  short,  and 
fundamental  changes,  therefore,  should  not  be 
made.  This  agreeable  prophecy  does  not 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA       91 

spring  from  a  heartening  belief  in  victory,  but 
only  from  the  procrastinating  attitude,  "Why 
get  ready?"  To  prepare  for  anything  less  cer- 
tain than  death  seems  folly  to  many  of  the  sex, 
over-trained  in  patient  waiting. 

Then  there  is  the  official  who  constantly  sees 
the  seamy  side  of  industrial  life  and  who  con- 
cludes— we  can  scarcely  blame  him — that  "it 
would  be  well  if  women  were  excluded  entirely 
from  factory  life."  The  bad  condition  of  in- 
dustrial surroundings  bulks  large  in  his  mind, 
and  the  value  of  organized  work  to  us  mortals 
bulks  small.  We  are  all  too  inclined  to  forget 
that  the  need  for  work  cannot  be  eliminated,  but 
the  unhealthy  process  in  a  dangerous  trade  can. 
Clean  up  the  factory,  rather  than  clean  out  the 
women,  is  a  sound  slogan. 

And  then  comes  the  objector  who  is  exer- 
cised as  to  the  effect  of  paid  work  upon  woman's 
charm.  Solicitude  on  this  score  is  often  buried 
in  a  woman's  heart.  It  was  a  woman,  the  owner 
of  a  large  estate,  who  when  proposing  to  em- 
ploy women  asked  how  many  men  she  would 
have  to  hire  in  addition,  "to  dig,  plough  and  do 
all  the  hard  work."  On  learning  that  the  col- 
lege units  do  everything  on  a  farm,  she  que- 
ried anxiously, ' '  But  how  about  their  corsets ! ' ' 
To  the  explanation,  "They  don't  wear  any," 


92       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

came  the  regret,  "What  a  pity  to  make  them- 
selves so  unattractive!" 

I  have  heard  fear  expressed,  too,  lest  sex  at- 
traction be  lost  through  work  on  army  hats, 
the  machinery  being  noisy  and  the  operative, 
if  she  talk,  running  the  danger  of  acquiring  a 
sharp,  high  voice.  One  could  but  wonder  if 
most  American  women  work  on  army  hats. 

Among  the  women  actually  employed,  I  have 
found  without  exception  a  fine  spirit  of  service. 
So  many  of  them  have  a  friend  or  brother  "over 
there,"  that  backing  up  the  boys  makes  a  strong 
personal  appeal.  But  some  of  the  women  who 
have  left  factory  life  behind  are  adopting  an 
attitude  towards  the  present  industrial  situation 
as  lacking  in  vision  as  in  patriotism.  Through- 
out a  long  discussion  in  which  some  of  these 
women  participated  I  was  able  to  follow  and 
get  their  point  of  view.  To  them  a  woman  act- 
ing as  a  messenger,  an  elevator  operator,  or  a 
trolley  conductor,  was  anathema,  and  the  tempt- 
ing of  women  into  these  employments  seemed 
but  the  latest  vicious  trick  of  the  capitalist. 
The  conductor  in  her  becoming  uniform  was 
most  reprehensible,  and  her  evident  satisfac- 
tion in  her  job  suggested  to  her  critics  that  she 
merely  was  trying  to  play  a  melodramatic  part 
"as  a  war  hero,"  In  any  case,  the  conductor's 


OVEB  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA       93 

occupation  was  one  no  woman  should  be  in, 
"crowded  and  pushed  about  as  she  is."  It  was 
puzzling  to  know  why  it  was  regarded  as  right 
for  a  woman  to  pay  five  cents  and  be  pushed, 
and  unbecoming  for  another  woman  to  be  paid 
eighteen  dollars  and  ninety  cents  a  week  and 
run  the  risk  of  a  jolt  when  stepping  outside  her 
barrier. 

But  the  ideals  of  yesterday  fail  to  make  their 
appeal.  It  is  not  the  psychological  moment  to 
urge,  on  the  ground  of  comfort,  the  woman's 
right  to  protection.  The  contrast  between  the 
trenches  and  the  street  car  or  factory  is  too 
striking.  But  it  is,  however,  the  exact  moment 
to  plead  for  better  care  of  workers,  both  women 
and  men,  because  their  health  and  skill  are  as 
necessary  in  attaining  the  national  aim  as  the 
soldiers '  prowess  and  well-being.  It  is  the  time 
to  advocate  the  protection  of  the  worker  from 
long  hours,  because  the  experience  of  Europe 
has  proved  that  a  greater  and  better  output  is 
achieved  when  a  short  day  is  strictly  adhered  to, 
when  the  weekly  half-holiday  is  enjoyed,  and 
Sunday  rest  respected.  The  United  States  is 
behind  other  great  industrial  countries  in  legal 
protection  for  the  workers.  War  requirements 
may  force  us  to  see  in  the  health  of  the  worker 
the  greatest  of  national  assets. 


94       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWEK 

• 

Meantime,  whether  approved  or  not,  the 
American  woman  is  going  over  the  top.  Four 
hundred  and  more  are  busy  on  aeroplanes  at 
the  Curtiss  works.  The  manager  of  a  munition 
shop  where  to-day  but  fifty  women  are  em- 
ployed, is  putting  up  a  dormitory  to  accommo- 
date five  hundred.  An  index  of  expectation! 
Five  thousand  are  employed  by  the  Eemington 
Arms  Company  at  Bridgeport.  At  the  Inter- 
national Arms  and  Fuse  Company  at  Bloom- 
field,  New  Jersey,  two  thousand,  eight  hundred 
are  employed.  The  day  I  visited  the  place,  in 
one  of  the  largest  shops  women  had  only  just 
been  put  on  the  work,  but  it  was  expected  that 
in  less  than  a  month  they  would  be  found  hand- 
ling all  of  the  twelve  hundred  machines  under 
that  one  roof  alone. 

The  skill  of  the  women  staggers  one.  After 
a  week  or  two  they  master  the  operations  on  the 
" turret,"  gauging  and  routing  machines.  The 
best  worker  on  the  "facing"  machine  is  a 
woman.  She  is  a  piece  worker,  as  many  of  the 
women  are,  and  is  paid  at  the  same  rate  as 
men.  This  woman  earned,  the  day  I  saw  her, 
five  dollars  and  forty  cents.  She  tossed  about 
the  fuse  parts,  and  played  with  that  machine, 
as  I  would  with  a  baby.  Perhaps  it  was  in 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA       95 

somewhat  the  same  spirit — she  seemed  to  love 
her  toy. 

Most  of  the  testers  and  inspectors  are  women. 
They  measure  the  parts  step  by  step,  and  weigh 
the  completed  fuse,  carrying  off  the  palm  for 
reliability.  The  manager  put  it,  "for  inspec- 
tion the  women  are  more  conscientious  than 
men.  They  don't  measure  or  weigh  just  one 
piece,  shoving  along  a  half-dozen  untouched  and 
let  it  go  at  that.  They  test  each."  That  did 
not  surprise  me,  but  I  was  not  prepared  to 
hear  that  the  women  do  not  have  so  many  ac- 
cidents as  men,  or  break  the  machines  so  often. 
In  explanation,  the  manager  threw  over  an 
imaginary  lever  with  vigor  sufficient  to  shake 
the  factory,  "Men  put  their  whole  strength 
on,  women  are  more  gentle  and  patient." 

Nor  are  the  railways  neglecting  to  fill  up  gaps 
in  their  working  force  with  women.  The 
Pennsylvania  road,  it  is  said,  has  recruited 
some  seven  hundred  of  them.  In  the  Erie 
Railroad  women  are  not  only  engaged  as 
"work  classifiers"  in  the  locomotive  clerical 
department,  but  hardy  Polish  women  are 
employed  in  the  car  repair  shops.  They 
move  great  wheels  as  if  possessed  of  the 
strength  of  Hercules.  And  in  the  locomotive 


96       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

shops  I  found  women  working  on  drill-press 
machines  with  ease  and  skill.  Just  as  I  came  up 
to  one  operator,  she  lifted  an  engine  truck-box 
to  the  table  and  started  drilling  out  the  studs. 
She  had  been  at  the  work  only  a  month,  and  ex- 
plained her  skill  by  the  information  that  she 
was  Swedish,  and  had  always  worked  with  her 
husband  in  their  auto-repair  shop.  All  the 
other  drill-press  hands  and  the  * '  shapers, ' '  too, 
were  Americans  whose  husbands, old  employees, 
were  now  "over  there."  Not  one  seemed  to 
have  any  sense  of  the  unusual;  even  the  little 
blond  check-clerk  seated  in  her  booth  at  the 
gates  of  the  works  with  her  brass  discs  about 
her  had  in  a  few  months '  time  changed  a  revo- 
lution into  an  established  custom.  She  and  the 
discs  seemed  old  friends.  Women  are  adapt- 
able. 

But  everywhere  I  gathered  the  impression 
that  the  men  are  a  bit  uneasy.  A  foreman  in 
one  factory  pointed  out  a  man  who  "  would  not 
have  voted  for  suffrage"  had  he  guessed  that 
women  were  "to  rush  in  and  gobble  everything 
up."  I  tried  to  make  him  see  that  it  wasn't  the 
vote  that  gave  the  voracious  appetite,  but  neces- 
sity or  desire  to  serve.  And  in  any  case,  women 
do  not  push  men  out,  they  push  them  up.  In 
not  a  single  instance  did  I  hear  of  a  man  being 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA       97 

turned  off  to  make  a  place  for  a -woman.  He 
had  left  his  job  to  go  into  the  army,  or  was  ad- 
vanced to  heavier  or  more  skilled  work. 

As  to  how  many  women  have  supplanted  men, 
or  poured  into  the  new  war  industries,  no  figures 
are  available.  One  guess  has  put  it  at  a  million. 
But  that  is  merely  a  guess.  I  have  seen  them 
by  the  tens,  the  hundreds,  the  thousands.  The 
number  is  large  and  rapidly  increasing.  We 
may  know  that  something  important  is  happen- 
ing when  even  the  government  takes  note. 
The  United  States  Labor  Department  has  recog- 
nized the  new-comers  by  establishing  a  Division 
of  Women 's  Work  with  branches  in  every  State. 
It  looks  as  if  these  bureaus  of  employment 
would  not  be  idle,  with  a  showing  of  one  thou- 
sand, five  hundred  applicants  the  first  week  the 
New  York  office  was  opened.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  this  government  effort  will  save  the  round 
pegs  from  getting  into  the  square  holes. 

But  even  the  round  peg  in  the  round  hole 
brings  difficulties.  When  Adam  Smith  asserted 
that  of  all  sorts  of  luggage  man  was  the  most 
difficult  to  move,  he  forgot  woman!  The  in- 
stant women  are  carried  into  a  new  industry, 
they  bring  with  them  puzzling  problems. 
Where  shall  we  put  their  coats  and  picture  hats, 
how  shall  we  cover  up  their  hair,  what  shall  we 


98       MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWEK 

feed  them  with!  They  must  have  lockers  and 
rest  rooms,  caps  and  overalls,  and  above  all, 
canteens.  The  munition  workers,  the  con- 
ductors, in  fact,  all  women  in  active  work,  get 
prodigiously  hungry.  They  have  made  a  regi- 
ment of  dietitians  think  about  calories.  Here 
is  what  one  of  the  street  railways  in  New  York 
City  offered  them  on  a  given  day : — 

Tomato  soup lOc.  or  with  an  order  5c. 

Roast  leg  of  veal 16c. 

Beef    16c. 

Lamb  fricassee  16c. 

Ham  steak 16e. 

Liver  and  onions 16c. 

Sirloin  steak 30c. 

Small  steak  20c. 

Ham  and  eggs 20c. 

Ham  omelet 20c. 

Regular  dinner 

Soup,  meat, 

Vegetable, 

Dessert,  coffee 25c. 

Rice  pudding  5c. 

Pie  5c. 

Cake 5c. 

Banana  or  orange 5c. 

The  canteen  is  open  every  hour  of  the  twenty- 
four,  and  the  women  conductors  at  the  end  of 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA       99 

each  run  usually  take  a  bite,  and  then  have  a 
substantial  meal  during  the  long  break  of  an 
hour  and  a  half  in  the  middle  of  the  ten-hour 
day. 

Another  problem  brought  to  us  by  women  in 
industry  is,  how  can  we  house  them?  The  war 
industries  have  drawn  large  numbers  to  new 
centers.  The  haphazard  accommodation  which 
men  will  put  up  with,  won't  satisfy  women. 
They  demand  more,  and  get  more.  To  attract 
the  best  type  of  women  the  munition  plants  are 
putting  up  dormitories  to  accommodate  hun- 
dreds of  workers,  and  are  making  their  plants 
more  attractive,  with  rest  rooms  and  hospital 
accommodation.  Take,  for  instance,  the  Briggs 
and  Stratton  Company,  which  in  order  to  draw 
high  grade  workers  built  its  new  factory  in  one 
of  the  best  sections  of  Milwaukee.  The  work- 
rooms are  as  clean  as  the  proverbial  Dutch 
woman's  doorstep.  From  the  top  of  the  benches 
to  the  ceiling  the  walls  are  glass  to  ensure  day- 
light in  every  corner,  and  by  night  the  system 
of  indirect  lighting  gives  such  perfectly  diffused 
light  that  not  a  heavy  shadow  falls  anywhere. 
And  the  hospital  room  and  nurse — well,  one 
would  rejoice  to  have  an  accident  daily! 

The  factory  may  become  the  exemplar  for 
the  home. 


100      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

The  professional  woman  is  going  over  the 
top,  and  with  a  good  opinion  of  herself.  "I 
can  do  this  work  better  than  any  man,"  was 
the  announcement  made  by  a  young  woman 
from  the  Pacific  Coast  as  she  descended  upon 
the  city  hall  in  an  eastern  town,  credentials  in 
her  hand,  and  asked  for  the  position  of  city 
chemist.  There  was  not  a  microbe  she  did  not 
know  to  its  undoing,  or  a  deadly  poison  she 
could  not  bring  from  its  hiding  place.  The 
town  had  suffered  from  graft,  and  the  mayor, 
thinking  a  woman  might  scare  the  thieves  as 
well  as  the  bacteria,  appointed  the  chemist  who 
believed  in  herself.  And  she  is  just  one  of 
many  who  have  been  taking  up  such  work. 

Formerly  two-thirds  of  the  positions  filled  by 
the  New  York  Intercollegiate  Bureau  of  Occu- 
pations were  secretarial  or  teaching  positions ; 
now  three-fourths  of  its  applicants  have  been 
placed  as  physicists,  chemists,  office  managers, 
sanitary  experts,  exhibit  secretaries,  and  the 
like.  The  temporary  positions  used  to  out- 
number the  permanent  placements;  at  present 
the  reverse  is  true.  Of  the  women  placed,  four 
times  as  many  as  formerly  get  salaries  ranging 
above  eighteen  hundred  dollars  a  year. 

The  story  told  at  the  employment  bureaus  in 
connection  with  professional  societies  and 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA     101 

clubs  such  as  the  Chemists'  Club  is  the  same. 
Women  are  being  placed  not  merely  as  teachers 
of  chemistry  or  as  routine  laboratory  workers 
in  hospitals,  but  also  as  experimental  and  con- 
trol chemists  in  industrial  plants.  In  the  great 
rolling  mills  they  are  testing  steel,  at  the  copper 
smelters  they  are  found  in  the  laboratories. 
The  government  has  thrown  doors  wide  open 
to  college-trained  women.  They  are  physicists 
and  chemists  in  the  United  States  Bureaus  of 
Standards,  Mines,  and  Soils,  sanitary  experts 
in  military  camps,  research  chemists  in  animal 
nutrition  and  fertilizers  at  state  experiment 
stations. 

But  the  industrial  barrier  is  the  one  most  re- 
cently scaled.  Women  are  now  found  as  an- 
alytical, research  or  control  chemists  in  the 
canneries,  in  dye  and  electrical  works,  in  flour 
and  paper  mills,  in  insecticide  companies,  and 
cement  works.  They  test  the  steel  that  will 
carry  us  safely  on  our  journeys,  they  pass 
upon  the  chemical  composition  of  the  flavor  in 
our  cake,  as  heads  of  departments  in  metal  re- 
fining companies  they  determine  the  kind  of 
copper  battery  we  shall  use,  and  they  have  a 
finger  in  our  liquid  glues,  household  oils  and 
polishes. 

And  the  awakened  spirit  of  social  responsi- 


102      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

bility  has  opened  new  callings.  The  college 
woman  not  only  is  beginning  to  fill  welfare  posi- 
tions inside  the  factory,  but  is  acting  as  pro- 
tective officer  in  towns  near  military  camps. 
Perhaps  one  of  the  newest  and  most  interesting 
positions  is  that  of  "employment  secretary." 
The  losing  of  employees  has  become  so  serious 
and  general  that  big  industries  have  engaged 
women  who  devote  their  time  to  looking  up 
absentees  and  finding  out  why  each  worker  left. 

And  so  we  see  on  all  hands  wemen  breaking 
through  the  old  accustomed  bounds. 

Not  only  as  workers  but  as  voters,  the  war 
has  called  women  over  the  top.  Since  that 
fateful  August,  1914,  four  provinces  of  Canada 
and  the  Dominion  itself  have  raised  the  ban- 
ner of  votes  for  women.  Nevada  and  Montana 
declared  for  suffrage  before  the  war  was  four 
months  old,  and  Denmark  enfranchised  its 
women  before  the  year  was  out.  And  when 
America  went  forth  to  fight  for  democracy 
abroad,  Arkansas,  Michigan,  Vermont,  Ne- 
braska, North  Dakota,  Ehode  Island,  began  to 
lay  the  foundations  of  freedom  at  home,  and 
New  York  in  no  faltering  voice  proclaimed  full 
liberty  for  all  its  people.  Lastly  Great  Britain 
has  enfranchised  its  women,  and  surely  the  Con- 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA     103 

gress  of  the  United  States  will  not  lag  behind 
the  Mother  of  Parliaments  I 

The  world  is  facing  changes  as  great  as  the 
breaking  up  of  the  feudal  system.  Causes  as 
fundamental,  more  wide-spread,  and  more  cata- 
clysmic are  at  work  than  at  the  end  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages.  Among  the  changes  none  is  more 
marked  than  the  intensified  development  in 
what  one  may  call,  for  lack  of  a  better  term,  the 
woman  movement.  The  advance  in  political 
freedom  has  moved  steadily  forward  during  the 
past  quarter  of  a  century,  but  in  the  last  three 
years  progress  has  been  intense  and  striking. 

The  peculiarity  in  attainment  of  political 
democracy  for  women  has  lain  in  the  fact  that 
while  for  men  economic  freedom  invariably  pre- 
ceded political  enfranchisement,  in  the  case  of 
women  the  conferring  of  'the  vote  in  no  single 
case  was  related  to  the  stage  which  the  en- 
franchised group  had  attained  in  the  matter  of 
economic  independence.  Nowhere  were  even 
those  women  who  were  entirely  lacking  in  eco- 
nomic freedom,  excluded  on  that  account  from 
any  extension  of  suffrage.  Even  in  discus- 
sions of  the  right  of  suffrage  no  reference  has 
ever  been  made,  in  dealing  with  women 's  claim, 
to  the  relation,  universally  recognized  in  the 


104      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

case  of  men,  of  political  enfranchisement  to 
economic  status.  Serfdom  gave  way  to  the 
wage  system  before  democracy  developed  for 
men,  and  the  colored  man  was  emancipated  be- 
fore he  was  enfranchised.  For  this  reason  the 
coming  of  women  as  paid  workers  over  the  top 
may  be  regarded  as  epoch-making. 

In  any  case,  self-determination  is  certainly 
a  strong  element  in  attaining  any  real  political 
freedom. 

Complete  service  to  their  country  in  this 
crisis  may  lead  women  to  that  economic  freedom 
which  will  change  a  political  possession  into  a 
political  power.  But  the  requirement  is  readi- 
ness to  do,  and  to  do  well,  the  task  which  offers. 
Man-power  must  give  itself  unreservedly  at  the 
front.  Women  must  show  not  only  eagerness 
but  fitness  to  substitute  for  man-power.  It  will 
hearten  the  nation,  help  to  make  the  path  clear, 
if  individual  women  declare  that  though  the 
call  to  them  has  not  yet  come  for  a  definite 
service,  the  time  of  waiting  will  not  be  spent  in 
complaint,  nor  yet  in  foolish  busy-ness,  but  in 
careful  and  conscientious  training  for  useful 
work. 

Each  woman  must  prepare  so  that  when  the 
nation's  need  arises,  she  can  stand  at  salute 


OVER  THE  TOP  IN  AMERICA     105 

and  say,  "Here  is  your  servant,  trained  and 
ready."  Women  are  not  driven  over  the  top. 
Through  self -discipline,  they  go  over  it  of  their 
own  accord. 


VII 
EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE 

NO  woman  is  a  cross  between  an  angel  and 
a  goose.  She  is  a  very  human  creature. 
She  has  many  of  man's  sins  and  some  virtues 
of  her  own. 

Moving  up  from  slavery  through  all  the  vari- 
ous forms  of  serfdom — attachment  to  the  soil, 
confinement  to  a  given  trade,  exclusion  from 
citizenship,  payment  in  kind,  on  to  full  eco- 
nomic freedom,  men  have  shown  definite  reac- 
tions at  each  step.  Women  respond  to  the 
same  stimuli. 

The  free  man  is  a  better  worker  than  slave  or 
serf.  So  is  the  free  woman.  All  the  old  gibes 
at  her  ineptitudes  have  broken  their  points 
against  the  actualities  of  her  ability  as  a  wage 
worker.  The  free  man  is  more  alert  to  obliga- 
tion, more  conscientious  in  performance,  than 
the  bond  servant.  So  is  the  free  woman.  With 
pay  envelope,  or  pension,  Eve  is  a  better  help- 
mate and  mother  than  ever  before. 

The  free  man  carries  a  lighter  heart  than 

10G 


EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE  107 

the  villain.  So  does  the  free  woman.  Men 
have  always  borne  personal  grief  more  easily 
than  women;  observers  remarked  the  fact. 
The  reason  is  the  same.  An  absorbing  occupa- 
tion, ordered  and  regarded  as  important,  which 
brings  a  return  allowing  the  recipient  to  pat- 
ronize what  he  or  she  thinks  wise,  that  brings 
happiness,  not  boisterous,  but  dignified.  It 
may  be  a  holocaust  through  which  Eve  gains 
that  pay  envelope,  but  the  material  possession 
brings  gratification  nevertheless.  It  is  a  tiny 
straw  showing  the  set  of  the  wind  that  leisure 
class  British  women,  however  large  their  un- 
earned bank  account,  show  no  reluctance  to  ac- 
cept pay  for  their  work,  and  full  responsibility 
in  their  new  position  of  employee. 

Women  are  supposed  to  have  liked  to  serve 
for  mere  love  of  service,  for  love  of  child,  love  of 
husband.  There  is,  of  course,  many  a  subtle 
relation  which  can't  be  weighed  and  paid  for; 
but  toil,  even  for  one's  very  own  hearthstone, 
can  be  valued  in  hard  cash.  The  daughters  of 
Eve,  no  less  than  the  sons  of  Adam,  react  hap- 
pily to  a  recognition  that  expresses  itself  in  a 
fair  wage. 

The  verdict  comes  from  all  sides  that  women 
were  never  more  content.  Of  course  they  are 
content.  The  weight  of  suppression  is  being 


108     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

lifted.  For  many  their  drudgery  is  for  the  first 
time  paid  for.  Is  not  that  invigorating?  The 
pay  envelope  is  equal  to  that  of  men.  Is  not 
that  a  new  experience  giving  self-respect  ?  Eve 
often  finds  her  pay  envelope  heavier  than  that 
of  the  man  working  at  her  side.  Eight  there 
in  her  hand,  then,  she  holds  proof  that  the  old 
prejudice  against  her  as  an  inferior  worker  is 
ill-founded. 

Women  are  finding  themselves.  Even  Amer- 
ica 's  Eve  discovers  that  pains  and  aches  are  not 
"woman's  lot."  She  is  under  no  curse  in  the 
twentieth  century.  With  eighteen  dollars  a 
week  for  ringing  up  fares,  and  a  possible  thirty- 
five  for  "facing"  fuse-parts,  nothing  can  per- 
suade her  to  be  poor-spirited.  She  radiates  the 
atmosphere,  "I  am  needed!"  Doors  fly  open 
to  her.  She  is  welcome  everywhere.  No  one 
seems  to  be  able  to  get  too  many  of  her  kind. 
Politicians  compete  for  her  favor,  employers 
quarrel  over  her.  It  makes  her  breathe  deep 
to  have  the -Secretary  of  the  Navy  summon  her 
to  the  United  States  arsenals,  pay  her  for  her 
work,  and  call  her  a  patriot. 

And  with  the  pay  envelope  women  remain 
clearly  human.  Their  purchases  often  reflect 
past  denials,  rather  than  present  needs  or  even 
tastes.  When  set  free  one  always  buys  what 


EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE  109 

the  days  of  dependence  deprived  one  of.  One 
of  Boston's  leading  merchants  told  me  that  Self- 
ridge  in  London  was  selling  more  jaunty  ready- 
to-wear  dresses  than  ever  before.  It  was  part 
of  John  Bull's  discipline  in  ante-bellum  depend- 
ent days  to  keep  his  women  folk  dowdy.  The 
Lancashire  lass  with  head  shawl  and  pattens, 
the  wearer  of  the  universal  sailor  hat,  in  these 
days  of  independence  and  pounds,  shillings  and 
pence,  are  taking  note  of  the  shop  windows. 
And  John  is  not  turning  his  eyes  away  from  his 
women  folk  in  their  day  of  self-determination. 

But  it  is  not  to  be  concluded  that  it  is  all  beer 
and  skittles  for  Eve.  With  a  pay  envelope  and 
a  vote  come  responsibilities.  Public  sympathy 
has  backed  up  laws  cutting  down  long  hours  of 
work  for  women.  The  trade  unions,  with  a 
thought  to  possible  competitors,  have  favored 
protecting  them  from  night  work.  Has  Eve 
been  a  bit  spoiled?  Has  she  let  herself  too 
easily  be  classed  with  children  and  allowed  a 
line  to  be  drawn  between  men  and  women  in 
industry?  Is  it  a  bit  of  woman's  proverbial 
logic  to  demand  special  protection,  and  at  the 
same  time  insist  upon  "  equal  pay  for  equal 
work"? 

The  hopelessness  of  attaining  the  promise  of 
the  slogan  is  well  illustrated  in  the  case  of  a 


110     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

gray  haired  woman  I  once  met  in  a  London 
printing  shop.  In  her  early  days  she  had  been 
one  of  the  women  taken  on  by  the  famous  print- 
ing firm  of  McCorquodale.  That  was  before 
protective  legislation  applied  to  women.  She 
became  a  highly  skilled  printer,  earning  more 
than  any  man  in  the  shop.  When  there  was 
pressure  of  work  she  was  always  one  of  the 
group  of  experts  chosen  to  carry  through  the 
rush  order.  That  meant  on  occasion  overtime 
or  night  work.  Then  she  went  on  to  tell  me 
how  her  skill  was  checked  in  her  very  prime. 
Regulations  as  to  women's  labor  were  grad- 
ually fixed  in  the  law.  All  the  printers  in  the 
shop,  she  said,  favored  the  laws  limiting  her 
freedom  but  not  theirs.  Soon  her  wages  re- 
flected the  contrast.  Her  employer  called  her 
to  his  office  one  day  and  explained,  ''I  cannot 
afford  to  pay  you  as  much  as  the  men  any 
longer.  You  are  not  worth  as  much  to  me,  not 
being  able  to  work  Saturday  afternoon,  at  night, 
or  overtime."  She  was  put  on  lower  grade 
work  and  her  pay  envelope  grew  slight. 

This  woman  was  not  discussing  the  value  of 
shorter  working  hours,  she  was  pointing  out 
that  "equal  pay"  cannot  rule  for  an  entire 
group  of  workers  when  restrictions  apply  to 
part  of  the  group  and  not  to  the  whole  body. 


EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE  111 

We  meet  here,  not  a  theory,  but  an  incon- 
trovertible fact.  Pay  is  not  equal,  and  can- 
not be,  where  conditions  are  wholly  unequal. 
Protection  for  the  woman  worker  means  ex- 
actly what  it  would  mean  for  the  alien  man  if  by 
law  he  were  forbidden  to  work  Saturday  after- 
noon, overtime  or  at  night,  while  the  citizen 
worker  was  without  restriction.  The  alien 
would  be  cut  off  from  advancement  in  every 
trade  in  which  he  did  not  by  overwhelming  num- 
bers dominate  the  situation,  he  would  be  kept 
to  lower  grade  processes,  he  would  receive  much 
lower  pay  than  the  unprotected  worker. 

What  common  sense  would  lead  us  to  expect 
in  the  hypothetical  case  of  an  alien  man,  has 
happened  for  the  woman  worker.  Oddly 
enough  she  has  not  herself  asked  for  this  pro- 
tection, but  it  has  been  urged  very  largely  by 
women  not  of  the  industrial  class.  Women 
teachers,  doctors,  lawyers,  women  of  leisure  are 
the  advocates  of  special  legislation  for  indus- 
trial women.  And  yet  in  their  own  case  they 
are  entirely  reasonable,  and  ask  no  favors. 
The  woman  teacher,  and  quite  truly,  insists  that 
she  works  as  hard  and  as  long  hours  as  the  man 
in  her  grade  of  service,  and  on  that  sound 
foundation  she  builds  her  just  demand  for  equal 
pay.  Women  doctors  and  lawyers  have  never 


112      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

asked  for  other  than  a  square  deal  in  their  pro- 
fessions. 

It  would  be  well,  perhaps,  if  industrial 
women  were  permitted  to  guide  their  own  ship. 
They  have  knowledge  enough  to  reach  a  safe 
harbor.  There  was  a  hint  that  they  were  about 
to  assume  the  helm  when  the  rank  and  file  of 
union  workers  voted  down  at  the  conference  of 
the  Women's  Trade  Union  League  the  resolu- 
tion proposing  a  law  to  forbid  women  acting  as 
conductors.  It  was  also  suggestive  when  a 
woman  rose  and  asked  of  the  speaker  on  dan- 
gerous trades,  whether  "men  did  not  suffer 
from  exposure  to  fumes,  acids  and  dust." 

Women  have  so  long  been  urging  that  they 
are  people,  that  they  have  forgotten,  perchance, 
that  men  are  people  also.  Men  respond  to  rest 
and  recreation  as  do  human  beings  of  the  op- 
posite sex.  All  workers  need,  and  both  sexes 
should  have,  protection.  But  if  only  one  sex  in 
industrial  life  can  have  bulwarks  thrown  up 
about  it,  men  should  be  the  favored  ones  just 
now.  They  are  few,  they  are  precious,  they 
should  be  wrapped  in  cotton  wool. 

The  industrial  woman  should  stand  unquali- 
fiedly for  the  exclusion  of  children  from  gainful 
pursuits.  Many  years  ago  the  British  govern- 
ment had  Miss  Collett,  one  of  the  Labor  Cor- 


EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE  113 

respondents  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  make  a  spe- 
cial study  of  the  influence  of  the  employment  of 
married  women  on  infant  mortality.  The  ob- 
ject was  to  prove  that  there  was  direct  cause 
and  effect.  The  investigator,  after  an  exhaus- 
tive study  covering  many  industrial  centers, 
brought  back  the  report,  "Not  proven."  But 
the  statistics  showed  one  most  interesting  rela- 
tion. In  districts  where  the  prevailing  custom 
permitted  the  employment  of  children  as  early 
as  the  law  allowed,  infant  mortality  was  high, 
and  in  districts  where  few  children  were  em- 
ployed, infant  mortality  was  low.  No  explana- 
tion of  this  striking  revelation  was  made  in  the 
report,  but  many  who  commented  on  the  tables, 
pointed  out  that  the  wide-spread  employment  of 
the  population  in  its  early  years  sapped  the  vi- 
tality of  the  community  to  such  an  extent  that 
its  offspring  were  weakened.  In  other  words, 
the  employment  of  the  immature  child,  more 
than  the  employment  of  that  child  when  grown 
and  married,  works  harm  to  the  race. 

The  woman  with  a  pay  envelope  must  not, 
then,  be  willing  to  swell  the  family  budget  by 
turning  her  children  into  the  wage  market.  For 
if  she  does,  she  creates  a  dangerous  competitor 
for  herself,  and  puts  in  certain  jeopardy  the 
virility  of  her  nation. 


114      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWEK 

But  in  this  war  time  women  have  secured 
more  than  new  and  larger  pay  envelopes,  for 
each  belligerent  has  reckoned  up  the  woman's 
worth  as  mother  in  coin  of  the  realm.  It  is 
enough  to  turn  Eve's  head — pay  and  pensions 
accorded  her  all  at  once. 

Allowances  to  dependents  are  more,  however, 
than  financial  expedients.  They  are  part  of 
the  psychological  stage-setting  of  the  Great 
War.  The  fighting  man  must  be  more  than 
well-fed,  well-clothed,  well-equipped,  more  than 
assured  of  care  if  ill  or  wounded ;  he  must  have 
his  mind  undisturbed  by  conditions  at  home. 
Governments  now  know  that  there  must  be  no 
just  cause  for  complaint  in  the  family  at  the 
rear,  if  the  man  at  the  front  is  to  be  fully  ef- 
fective. In  the  interest  of  the  fighting  line, 
governments  dare  not  leave  the  home  to  the 
haphazard  care  of  charity. 

And  so  the  great  belligerents  have  adopted 
systems  for  an  uninterrupted  flow  of  money  aid 
to  the  hearthstone.  The  wife  feels  dependence 
on  the  nation  for  which  she  and  her  man  are 
making  sacrifices,  the  soldier  has  a  sense  of 
closer  relationship  with  the  country's  cause  for 
which  he  fights.  Content  at  home  and  sense 
of  gratitude  in  the  trenches  build  up  loyalty 
everywhere.  The  state  allowance  answers  an 


EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE  115 

economic  want  and  a  psychological  necessity. 

It  is  part  of  our  national  lack  of  technique 
that  we  were  slow  to  make  provision  for  the 
dependents  of  enlisted  men,  and  even  then  were 
not  whole  hearted.  It  may  have  been  our  in- 
herited distrust  of  the  conscript  that  led  us  to 
feel  that  only  by  his  volunteering  something 
will  a  precious  antidote  be  administered  to  the 
spirit  of  the  drafted  man.  To  protect  his  in- 
dividualism from  taint,  the  United  States  sol- 
dier must  bear  part  of  the  financial  burden. 
Europe,  on  the  other  hand,  is  working  on  a 
basis  of  reciprocity.  The  nation  exacts  service 
from  the  man  and  gives  complete  service  to  his 
dependents.  In  America  the  man  is  bound  to 
serve  the  community,  but  the  community  is  not 
bound  to  serve  him.  And  yet  in  our  case  there 
is  peculiar  need  of  this  even  exchange  of  ob- 
ligations. The  care  of  parents  in  the  United 
States  falls  directly  upon  their  children,  while 
some  of  our  allies  had,  even  before  the  war, 
carefully  devised  laws  regulating  pensions  to 
the  aged. 

But  first  let  us  get  the  simple  skeleton  of  the 
various  allowance  laws  in  mind.  The  scale  of 
the  allowance  in  different  countries  adapts  it- 
self to  national  standards  and  varying  cost  of 
living.  The  Canadian  allowance  seems  the 


116      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

most  generous.  At  least  one-half  of  the  sol- 
dier's pay  is  given  directly  to  his  dependents. 
The  government  gives  an  additional  twenty  dol- 
lars and  the  donations  of  the  Patriotic  Fund 
bring  up  the  monthly  allowance  of  a  wife  with 
three  children  to  sixty  dollars.  The  allowance, 
as  might  be  expected,  is  low  in  Italy.  The 
soldier's  wife  gets  eight-tenths  of  a  lira  a  day, 
each  child  four-tenths  lira,  and  either  a  father 
or  mother  alone  eight-tenths  lira,  or  if  both  are 
living,  one  and  three-tenths  lire  together.  The 
British  allowance  is  much  higher,  the  wife  get- 
ting twelve  shillings  and  sixpence  a  week.  If 
she  has  one  child,  the  weekly  allowance  rises 
to  nineteen  and  sixpence;  if  two  children,  to 
twenty-four  and  sixpence;  if  three,  to  twenty- 
eight  shillings;  and  if  there  are  four  or  more 
children,  the  mother  receives  three  shillings  a 
week  for  each  extra  child. 

Between  the  extremes  of  Italy  and  England 
stands  France,  the  wife  receiving  one  franc 
twenty-five  centimes  a  day,  each  child  under 
sixteen  years  of  age  twenty-five  centimes,  and 
a  dependent  parent  seventy-five  centimes. 
Japan  grants  no  government  allowance.  A 
Japanese  official,  in  response  to  my  inquiry, 
wrote,  "Relations  the  first  and  friends  the  next 
try  to  help  the  dependents  as  far  as  possible, 


EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE  117 

but  if  they  have  neither  relatives  nor  friends 
who  have  sufficient  means  to  help  them,  then  the 
association  consisting  of  ladies  or  the  municipal 
officials  afford  subvention  to  them." 

Under  the  law  passed  by  Congress  in  Oc- 
tober, 1917,  an  American  private  receiving 
thirty-three  dollars  a  month  when  on  service 
abroad  must  allot  fifteen  dollars  a  month  to 
his  wife,  and  the  government  adds  to  this 
twenty-five  dollars,  and  if  there  is  one  child,  an 
additional  ten  dollars,  with  five  dollars  for  each 
additional  child.  A  man  can  secure  an  allow- 
ance from  the  government  of  ten  dollars  a 
month  to  a  dependent  parent,  if  he  allots  five 
dollars  a  month.  Such  are  the  bare  bones  of 
the  allowance  schemes  of  the  Allies  on  the  west- 
ern front. 

In  the  United  States  the  general  policy  of 
exemption  boards,  as  suggested  by  the  central 
authorities,  is  most  disciplinary  as  regards 
women.  Their  capacity  for  self-support  is  rig- 
idly inquired  into.  Our  men  are  definitely  urg- 
ing women  to  a  position  of  economic  independ- 
ence. The  aim  is,  while  securing  soldiers  for 
the  army,  to  relieve  the  government  of  the  ex- 
pense of  dependency  on  the  part  of  women. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  our  men  at  least  are 
faced  toward  the  future. 


118      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

No  less  indicative  is  it  of  a  new  world  that 
the  allowance  laws  of  all  the  western  belliger- 
ents recognize  common-law  marriages.  In  our 
own  law,  marriage  is  "  presumed  if  the  man  and 
woman  have  lived  together  in  the  openly  ac- 
knowledged relation  of  husband  and  wife  dur- 
ing two  years  immediately  preceding  the  date 
of  the  declaration  of  war."  And  the  illegiti- 
mate child  stands  equal  with  the  legitimate 
provided  the  father  acknowledges  the  child  or 
has  been  "  judicially  ordered  or  decreed  to  con- 
tribute" to  the  child's  support. 

Men  are  feminists.  Their  hearts  have  soft- 
ened even  towards  the  wife's  relatives,  for  the 
word  "parent"  is  not  only  broad  enough  to 
cover  the  father,  mother,  grandparents  or  step- 
father and  mother  of  the  man,  but  "of  the 
spouse"  also.  Thus  passeth  the  curse  of  the 
mother-in-law. 

One  need  not  be  endowed  with  the  spirit  of 
prophecy 'to  foretell  that  "allowances"  in  war 
time  will  broaden  out  into  motherhood  pensions 
in  peace  times.  It  would  be  an  ordinary  human 
reaction  should  the  woman  enjoying  a  pension 
refuse  to  give  up,  on  the  day  peace  is  declared, 
her  quickly  acquired  habit  of  holding  the  purse 
strings.  That  would  be  accepting  international 
calm  at  the  expense  of  domestic  differences. 


EVE'S  PAY  ENVELOPE  119 

The  social  value  of  encouraging  the  mother's 
natural  feeling  of  responsibility  toward  her 
child  by  putting  into  her  hands  a  state  pension 
is  being,  let  us  note,  widely  tested,  and  may 
demonstrate  the  wisdom  and  economy  of  de- 
voting public  funds  to  mothers  rather  than  to 
creches  and  juvenile  asylums. 

The  allowance  laws  may  prove  the  charter  of 
woman's  liberties;  her  pay  envelope  may  be- 
come her  contract  securing  the  right  of  self- 
determination. 


VIII 


"T71MPLOY  them."  This  was  the  advice 
Fj  given  to  a  large  conference  of  women 
met  to  discuss  business  opportunities  for  their 
sex.  The  advice  was  vouchsafed  by  a  young 
lawyer  after  the  problem  of  opening  wider  fields 
to  women  in  the  legal  profession  had  been 
looked  at  from  every  angle,  only  to  end  in  the 
question,  "What  can  we  do  to  increase  their 
practice?"  She  spoke  with  animation,  as  if  she 
had  found  the  key  to  the  situation,  "Employ 
them."  Perhaps  more  self -accusation  than  de- 
termination to  mend  their  ways  was  roused  by 
the  short  and  pointed  remark. 

The  advice  has  wider  application.  Taking 
thirty  names  of  women  at  random,  I  learned 
in  response  to  an  inquiry  that  only  four  had 
women  physicians,  two  had  women  lawyers,  and 
only  one,  a  woman  dentist.  Twenty-five  women 
of  large  real  estate  holdings  had  never  even 
for  the  most  unimportant  work  secured  the  serv- 
ices of  an  architect  of  their  own  sex.  Further 

120 


POOLING  BRAINS  121 

inquiry  brought  out  the  fact  that  of  a  long  list 
of  women's  clubs  and  associations  which  have 
built  or  altered  property  for  their  purposes, 
only  one  had  engaged  a  woman  architect. 

Perhaps  it  is  indicative  of  a  lack  of  nothing 
more  serious  than  a  sense  of  humor,  that  we 
women  unite  and,  apparently  without  embar- 
rassment, demand  that  masculine  presidents, 
governors,  mayors  and  legislatures  shall  ap- 
point women  to  office.  This  unabashed  faith  in 
the  good  will  of  men  seems  not  misplaced,  for 
not  only  do  public  men  show  some  confidence  in 
the  official  capacity  of  women,  but  to  my  inquiry 
as  to  whom  was  due  their  opportunities  to  "get 
on,"  business  women  invariably  replied,  "To 
men. ' ' 

However,  the  loyalty  of  women  to  women  is 
increasing,  and  their  solidarity  on  sound  lines  of 
service  is  a  thing  of  steady  growth.  Thought- 
ful women,  for  instance,  do  not  wish  a  woman 
put  in  a  position  of  responsibility  simply  be- 
cause she  is  a  woman,  but  they  are  even  more 
opposed  to  having  a  candidate  of  peculiar  fit- 
ness overlooked  merely  because  she  is  not  a 
man.  While  the  conscientious  and  poised 
women  are  not  willing  to  urge  any  and  every 
woman  for  a  given  office,  they  do  tenaciously 
hold  that  there  are  positions  which  cry  aloud  for 


122     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

women  and  for  which  the  right  women  should  be 
found.  In  conquering  a  fair  field,  women  will 
have  to  pool  their  brains  even  more  effectively 
than  they  have  in  the  past. 

Our  efforts  at  combination  are  a  mere  mush- 
room growth  compared  with  the  generations  of 
training  our  big  brothers  have  had  in  pooling 
brains.  War  and  the  chase  gave  them  their 
first  lessons  in  cooperation,  nor  has  war  been  a 
bad  teacher  for  women. 

Just  as  the  Crimean  War  and  our  Civil  War 
put  Florence  Nightingale  and  Clara  Barton  and 
the  trained  nurse  on  the  map,  this  war  is  bring- 
ing the  medical  woman  to  the  fore.  Women 
surgeons  and  doctors,  unlike  many  other 
groups,  offer  themselves  fully  trained  for  serv- 
ice. They  know  they  have  something  to  give, 
and  they  know  the  soldiers'  need. 

According  to  an  official  statement,  the  emer- 
gency call  of  the  army  for  men  physicians  and 
surgeons  fell  two  thousand  short  of  being  an- 
swered. The  necessity  of  the  soldier  and  the 
skill  of  the  women  will  no  doubt  in  the  end  be 
brought  effectively  together;  for  although  the 
government  of  the  United  States,  like  Great 
Britain  in  the  early  days  of  the  war,  has  left 
to  ever  farseeing  France  the  honor  of  extending 
hospitality  to  American  women  doctors,  their 


POOLING  BRAINS  123 

strong  national  organization,  with  a  member- 
ship of  four  thousand,  will  in  time,  no  doubt, 
persuade  Uncle  Sam  to  take  his  plucky  women 
doctors  over  the  top  under  the  Stars  and 
Stripes!  Organization  crystallized  about  an 
unselfish  desire  and  skilled  ability  to  serve  is  ir- 
resistible. 

The  pooling  of  the  brains  of  women  that  has 
been  going  on  on  a  country-wide  scale  for  more 
than  a  half -century  bears  analyzing.  These  as- 
sociations have  almost  invariably  centered 
about  a  service  to  be  rendered.  Even  the  first 
petition  for  political  enfranchisement  urged  it 
as  the  "duty  of  the  women  of  this  country  to  se- 
cure to  themselves  the  elective  franchise."  Un- 
selfishness draws  numbers  as  a  magnet  draws 
steel  filings.  The  spirit  of  service  lying  at  the 
heart  of  the  great  national  organizations  made 
possible  quick  response  to  new  duties  immedi- 
ately upon  our  entrance  into  the  war.  The 
suffragists  said,  We  wish  to  serve  and  we  are 
ready  for  service.  The  government  used  their 
wide-spread  net  of  local  centers  for  purposes 
of  registrations  and  war  appeals. 

Naturally  there  were  many  efforts  more  fool- 
ish than  effective  in  the  universal  rush  to  help. 
America  was  not  peculiar  in  this,  nor  for  the 
matter  of  that,  were  women.  War! — it  does 


124      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

make  the  blood  course  through  the  veins.  Ev- 
ery generous  citizen  cries  aloud,  "What  can  I 
do?"  Perhaps  men  are  a  little  more  voluble 
than  women,  their  emotions  not  finding  such 
immediate  and  approved  vent  along  clicking 
needles  and  tangled  skeins  of  wool.  On  the 
whole,  the  initiative  and  organizing  ability  of 
women  has  stood  out  supremely. 

Of  the  two  departments  of  the  Bed  Cross 
which  are  still  left  in  the  command  of  women, 
the  Bureau  of  Nursing,  with  Miss  Delano  at  its 
head,  mobilized  immediately  three  thousand  of 
the  fourteen  thousand  nurses  enrolled.  The 
first  Red  Cross  Medical  Unit  with  its  full  quota 
of  sixty-five  nurses  completely  equipped  stood 
on  European  soil  before  an  American  soldier 
was  there.  Of  the  forty-nine  units  ready  for 
service,  twelve,  with  from  sixty-five  to  one  hun- 
dred nurses  each,  are  now  in  France.  Two  of 
the  five  units  organized  for  the  navy,  each  with 
its  forty  active  nurses  and  twenty  reserves, 
are  established  abroad,  and  two  hundred  and 
thirty  nurses  are  already  in  active  naval  serv- 
ice here.  Miss  Delano  holds  constantly  in  re- 
serve fifteen  hundred  nurses  as  emergency  de- 
tachments, a  reservoir  from  which  some  eight 
hundred  have  been  drawn  for  cantonment  hos- 
pitals. An  inflow  of  nearly  one  thousand  nurses 


POOLING  BRAINS  125 

each  month  keeps  the  reservoir  ready  to  meet 
the  drain. 

The  Chapter  work-rooms  sprang  up  at  a  call 
in  the  night.  No  one  can  help  admiring  their 
well-ordered  functioning.  There  may  be  criti- 
cism, grumbling,  but  the  work-room  is  moving 
irresistibly,  like  a  well-oiled  machine.  And 
women  are  the  motive  power  from  start  to  fin- 
ish. The  Chapters,  with  their  five  million  mem- 
bers joined  in  three  thousand  units  over  the 
United  States,  are  so  many  monuments  to  the 
ability  of  women  for  detail.  Once  mobilized,  the 
women  have  thus  far  been  able  to  serve  two 
thousand  war  hospitals  with  surgical  dressings, 
and  to  send  abroad  thirteen  million  separate 
articles  packed  carefully,  boxed,  labelled  and 
accounted  for  on  their  books. 

Not  only  does  this  directing  of  manual  work 
stand  to  the  credit  of  the  Chapters,  but  they 
have  given  courses  of  lectures  in  home  nursing 
and  dietetics  to  thirty-four  thousand  women, 
and  in  first  aid,  ten  thousand  classes  have  been 
held  and  seventy-five  thousand  certificates  is- 
sued to  the  proficient.  Certainly  one  object  of 
the  Red  Cross,  "to  stimulate  the  volunteer  work 
of  women,"  has  been  accomplished. 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  why,  with  such 
examples  of  women's  efficiency  before  it,  the 


126      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

Red  Cross,  founded  by  Clara  Barton,  places 
merely  two  bureaus  in  the  hands  of  a  woman, 
has  chosen  no  woman  as  an  officer,  has  put  but 
one  woman  on  its  central  and  executive  com- 
mittee, and  not  a  single  woman  on  its  present 
controlling  body,  the  War  Council.  It  may  be 
that  the  protest  against  the  centralization  of 
all  volunteer  effort  in  the  Red  Cross,  in  spite  of 
President  Wilson's  appeal,  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  women  feared  that  their  energies,  running 
to  other  lines  than  nursing  and  surgical  dress- 
ings, would  be  entirely  sidetracked. 

The  honor  of  the  splendid  war  work  of  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association  belongs 
to  women.  The  War  Work  Council  of  the  Na- 
tional Board  of  Young  Women's  Christian  As- 
sociations shows  an  example  of  how  immedi- 
ately efficient  an  established  organization  can 
be  in  an  emergency.  As  one  sees  its  great  War 
Fund  roll  up,  one  exclaims,  "What  money  rais- 
ers women  are!"  The  immediate  demands 
upon  the  fund  are  for  Hostess  Houses  at  can- 
tonments where  soldiers  can  meet  their  women 
visitors,  dormitories  providing  emergency 
housing  for  women  employees  at  certain  army 
centers,  the  strengthening  of  club  work  among 
the  younger  girls  of  the  nation,  profoundly  af- 
fected by  war  conditions,  and  the  sending  of 


POOLING  BRAINS  127 

> 
experienced  organizers  to  cooperate  with  the 

women  leaders  of  France  and  Russia  and  to 
install  nurses'  huts  at  the  base  hospitals  of 
France.  It  makes  one's  heart  beat  high  to 
think  of  women  spending  millions  splendidly, 
they  who  have  always  been  told  to  save  pennies 
frugally !  Well,  those  hard  days  were  times  of 
training ;  women  learned  not  to  waste. 

A  very  worthy  pooling  of  brains,  because 
springing  up  with  no  tradition  behind  it,  was  the 
National  League  for  Woman's  Service.  In  six 
months  it  drew  to  itself  two  hundred  thousand 
members  and  built  organizations  in  thirty-nine 
States,  established  classes  to  train  women  for 
the  new  work  opening  to  them,  opened  recrea- 
tion centers  and  canteens  at  which  were  en- 
tertained on  a  single  Sunday,  at  one  center, 
eighteen  hundred  soldiers  and  sailors.  So  ex- 
cellent was  its  Bureau  of  Registration  and  In- 
formation for  women  workers  that  the  United 
States  Department  of  Labor  took  over  not  only 
the  files  and  methods  of  the  Woman's  League 
for  Service,  but  the  entire  staff  with  Miss  Oben- 
auer  at  its  head.  If  imitation  is  the  sincerest 
flattery,  what  shall  we  say  of  complete  adop- 
tion of  work  and  workers,  with  an  honorable 
"by  your  leave"  and  outspoken  praise!  And 
nothing  could  show  a  finer  spirit  of  service  than 


128     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

this  yielding  up  of  work  initiated  by  a  civil 
society  and  the  willing  passing  of  it  into  gov- 
ernment hands. 

Not  only  the  Labor  Department  has  estab- 
lished a  special  women 's  division  with  a  woman 
at  its  head,  but  the  Ordnance  Office  of  the  War 
Department  has  opened  in  its  Industrial  Service 
Section  a  woman's  division,  putting  Miss  Mary 
Van  Kleeck  in  charge. 

But  still  our  government  lags  behind  our  Al- 
lies in  mobilizing  woman's  power  of  intitiative 
and  her  organizing  faculty.  The  Woman's 
Committee  of  the  Council  of  National  Defense, 
appointed  soon  after  the  outbreak  of  war,  still 
has  no  administrative  power.  As  one  member 
of  the  Committee  says,  "We  are  not  allowed  to 
do  anything  without  the  consent  of  the  Council 
of  National  Defense.  There  is  no  appropria- 
tion for  the  Woman 's  Committee.  We  are  fur- 
nished with  headquarters,  stationery,  some 
printing  and  two  stenographers,  but  nothing 
more.  It  is  essential  that  we  raise  money  to 
carry  on  the  other  expenses.  The  great  trouble 
is  that  now,  as  always,  men  want  women  to  do 
the  work  while  they  do  the  overseeing." 

Perhaps  holding  the  helm  has  become  second 
nature  to  men  simply  because  they  have  held 
the  helm  so  long,  but  I  am  inclined  to  think  they 


POOLING  BKAINS  129 

have  a  very  definite  desire  to  have  women  help 
steer  the  ship.  Surely  the  readiness  with 
which  they  are  sharing  their  political  power 
with  women,  would  seem  to  indicate  their  wish 
for  cooperation  on  a  plan  of  perfect  equality. 

In  any  case,  it  is  not  necessary  to  hang  on  the 
skirts  of  government.  America  has  always 
shown  evidence  of  greater  gift  in  private  enter- 
prise than  state  action.  Perhaps  women  will 
demonstrate  the  national  characteristic.  It  was 
farsightedness  and  enterprise  that  led  the  Inter- 
collegiate Bureaus  of  Occupations,  societies  run 
for  women  by  women,  to  strike  out  in  this  crisis 
and  open  up  new  callings  for  their  clients,  and 
still  better,  to  persuade  colleges  and  schools  to 
modify  curricula  to  meet  the  changed  demands. 

Women  are  often  passed  over  because  they 
are  not  prepared. 

The  Bureaus  have  found  the  demand  for 
women  in  industrial  chemistry  and  physics,  for 
instance,  to  be  greater  than  the  supply  because 
the  graduates  of  women's  colleges  have  not  been 
carried  far  enough  in  mathematics,  and  in  chem- 
istry have  been  kept  too  much  to  theoretical 
text-book  work.  For  example,  the  head  of  a 
certain  industry  was  willing  to  give  the  position 
of  chemist  at  his  works  to  a  woman.  He  needed 
some  one  to  suggest  changes  in  process  from 


130      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

time  to  time,  and  to  watch  waste.  He  set  down 
eight  simple  problems  such  as  might  arise  any 
day  in  his  factory  for  the  candidates  to  answer. 
Soine  of  the  women,  all  college  graduates,  who 
had  specialized  in  chemistry,  could  not  answer 
a  single  problem,  and  none  showed  that  grip  of 
the  science  which  would  enable  them  to  give 
other  than  rule  of  thumb  solutions.  He  en- 
gaged a  man. 

In  answering  the  questionnaire  which  the  New 
York  Bureau  of  Occupations  sent  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  industrial  plants,  the  manager 
in  almost  every  case  replied,  in  regard  to  the 
possibility  of  employing  women  in  such  posi- 
tions as  research  or  control  chemists,  that  ap- 
plicants were  "badly  prepared."  As  hand 
workers,  too,  women  are  handicapped  by  lack  of 
knowledge  of  machinery.  In  this  tool  age,  high 
school  girls  are  cut  off  from  technical  educa- 
tion, although  they  are  destined  to  carry  on  in 
large  measure  our  skilled  trades.  I  am  told 
that  in  Germany  many  factories  had  to  close  be- 
cause only  women  were  available  as  managers, 
and  they  had  not  been  fitted  by  business  and 
technical  schools  for  the  task. 

If  women  individually  are  looking  for  a  soft 
place,  if  they  are  afraid,  as  one  manager  ex- 
pressed it,  "to  put  on  overalls  and  go  into  a 


POOLING  BRAINS  131 

vat,"  even  when  their  country  is  so  in  need  of 
their  service,  it  is  futile  for  them  to  ask  col- 
lectively for  equal  opportunity  and  equal  pay; 
if  they  individually  fail  to  prepare  as  for  a  life 
work,  regarding  themselves  as  but  temporarily 
in  business  or  a  profession,  their  collective  de- 
mand upon  the  world  for  a  fair  field  and  no 
favor  will  be  as  ineffective  as  illogical. 

The  doors  stand  wide  open.  It  rests  with 
women  themselves  as  to  whether  they  shall  en- 
ter in. 

To  the  steady  appeals  of  the  employment 
bureaus,  backed  by  the  stern  facts  of  life,  the 
colleges  are  yielding.  On  examination  I  found 
that  curricula  are  already  being  modified. 
None  but  the  sorriest  pessimist  could  doubt  the 
nature  of  the  final  outcome,  on  realizing  the 
pooling  of  brains  which  is  going  on  in  such  as- 
sociations as  the  Intercollegiate  Bureau  of  Oc- 
cupations and  the  League  for  Business  Oppor- 
tunities. They  work  to  the  end  of  having  young 
women  not  only  soundly  prepared  for  the  new 
openings,  but  sensitive  to  the  demands  of  a 
world  set  towards  stern  duty. 

Not  only  is  there  call  for  a  pooling  of  brains 
to  look  after  the  timid  and  unready,  but  there 
is  need  of  combination  to  open  the  gates  for  the 
prepared  and  brave.  Few  who  cheered  the  Bed 


132     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

Cross  nurses  as  they  made  their  stirring  march 
on  Fifth  Avenue,  knew  that  those  devoted 
women  would,  on  entering  the  Military  Nurse 
Corps,  find  themselves  the  only  nurses  among 
the  Allies  without  a  position  of  honor.  The  hu- 
miliation to  our  nurses  in  placing  them  below 
the  orderlies  in  the  hospitals  is  not  only  a  blow 
to  their  esprit  de  corps,  but  a  definite  handicap 
to  their  efficiency.  A  nurse  who  was  at  the  head 
of  the  nursing  staff  in  a  state  hospital  wrote 
from  the  front:  "There  is  one  thing  the 
Nursing  Committee  needs  to  work  for,  and  work 
hard,  too,  and  that  is,  to  make  for  nurses  the 
rank  of  lieutenant.  The  Canadians  have  it, 
why  not  the  Americans?  You  will  find  that  it 
will  make  a  tremendous  difference.  You  see, 
there  are  no  officers  in  our  nursing  personnel. 
One  of  our  staff  says  we  are  the  hired  extras ! 
It  is  really  a  great  mistake.*'  Uncle  Sam  may 
merely  be  waiting  for  a  concentrated  drive  of 
public  opinion  against  his  tardy  representa- 
tives. 

And  why  should  it  be  necessary  to  urge  that 
while  scores  of  young  men  are  dashing  to  death 
in  endeavors  to  learn  to  fly,  there  are  women 
unmobilized  who  know  how  to  soar  aloft  in 
safety?  They  have  never,  it  is  true,  been  sub- 
mitted to  laboratory  tests  in  twirlings  and  twist- 


POOLING  BEAINS  133 

ings,  but  they  reach  the  zenith.  Two  carried 
off  the  records  in  long  distance  flights,  but  both 
have  been  refused  admission  to  the  Flying 
Corps.  Will  it  need  a  campaign  to  secure  for 
our  army  this  efficient  service?  Must  women 
pool  their  brains  to  have  Kuth  Law  spread  her 
protecting  wings  over  our  boys  in  France? 

To  any  one  who  realizes  the  significance  of 
the  military  situation  as  it  stands,  and  who  is 
cognizant  of  the  contrast  between  Germany's 
use  of  her  entire  people  in  her  national  effort, 
and  the  slow  mobilization  of  woman-power 
among  the  Allies  and  entire  lack  of  anything 
worthy  the  name  of  mobilization  of  the  labor- 
power  of  women  in  the  United  States,  there  will 
come  a  determination  to  bury  every  jealousy 
between  woman  and  woman,  all  prejudice  in 
men,  to  cut  red  tape  in  government,  with  the 
one  object  of  combining  all  resources. 

The  full  power  of  our  men  must  be  thrown 
into  military  effort.  And,  then,  if  as  a  nation 
we  have  brains  to  pool,  we  will  not  stand  nig- 
gling, but  will  throw  women  doctors  in  to  ren- 
der their  service,  grant  to  the  nurse  corps 
what  it  needs  to  ensure  efficiency,  throw  open 
the  technical  schools  to  girls  as  well  as  to  boys, 
modify  the  college  course  to  meet  the  facts  of 
life.  Each  woman  unprepared  is  a  national 


134      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

handicap,  each  prejudice  blocking  the  use  of 
woman-power  is  treachery  to  our  cause. 

As  to  the  final  outcome  of  united  thought  and 
group  action  among  women,  no  one  can  doubt. 
Contacts  will  rub  off  angles,  capable  service 
will  break  down  sex  prejudice  and  overcome 
government  opposition.  But  there  is  not  time 
to  wait  for  the  slow  development  of  "  final  out- 
comes. ' ' 

Women  must  pool  their  brains  against  their 
own  shortcomings,  and  in  favor  of  their  own 
ability  to  back  up  their  country  now  and  here. 


IX 

"BUSINESS  AS  USUAL" 

IT  is  a  platitude  to  say  that  America  is  the 
most  extravagant  nation  on  earth.  The 
whole  world  tells  us  so,  and  we  do  not  deny  it, 
being,  indeed,  a  bit  proud  of  the  fact.  Who  is 
there  among  us  who  does  not  respond  with  sym- 
pathetic understanding  to  the  defense  of  the 
bride  reprimanded  for  extravagance  by  her 
mother-in-law  (women  have  mothers-in-law), 
"  John  and  I  find  we  can  do  without  the  necessi- 
ties of  life.  It's  the  luxuries  we  must  have." 
One  of  the  obstacles  to  complete  mobilization  of 
our  country  is  extravagance.  And  at  the  cen- 
ter of  this  national  failing  sits  the  American 
woman  enthroned. 

Europe  found  it  could  not  allow  old-time  lux- 
ury trades  to  go  on,  if  the  war  was  to  be  won. 
"Business  as  usual"  is  not  in  harmony  with 
victory. 

I  remember  the  first  time  I  heard  the  slogan, 
and  how  it  carried  me  and  everyone  else  away. 
The  Zeppelins  had  visited  London  the  night 

135 


136     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

before.  A  house  in  Red  Lion  Mews  was 
crushed  down  into  its  cellar,  a  heap  of  ruins. 
Every  pane  of  glass  was  shattered  in  the 
hospitals  surrounding  Queen's  Square,  and 
ploughed  deep,  making  a  great  basin  in  the 
center  of  the  grass,  lay  the  remnants  of  the 
bomb  that  had  buried  itself  in  the  heart  of  Eng- 
land. The  shops  along  Theobald's  Road  were 
wrecked,  but  in  the  heaps  of  broken  glass  in  each 
show  window  were  improvised  signs  such  as, 
"Don't  sympathize  with  us,  buy  something." 
The  sign  which  was  displayed  oftenest  read, 
"Business  as  usual." 

The  first  I  noticed  was  in  the  window  of  a 
print  shop,  the  owner  a  woman.  I  talked  to  her 
through  the  frame  of  the  shattered  glass.  She 
looked  very  pale  and  her  face  was  cut,  but  she 
and  everyone  else  was  calm.  And  no  one  was 
doing  business  as  usual  more  composedly  than 
a  wee  tot  trudging  along  to  school  with  a  nasty 
scratch  from  a  glass  splinter  on  her  chubby 
cheek. 

"Business  as  usual"  expressed  the  fine 
spirit,  the  courage,  the  determination  of  a  peo- 
ple. As  the  sporting  motto  of  an  indomitable 
race,  it  was  very  splendid.  But  war  is  not  a 
sport,  it  is  a  cold,  hard  science,  demanding  every 
energy  of  the  nation  for  its  successful  pursuit. 


"BUSINESS  AS  USUAL"          137 

In  proportion  as  our  indulgence  in  luxury  has 
been  greater  than  that  of  any  European  na- 
tion, our  challenge  to  every  business  must  be 
the  more  insistent.  There  must  be  a  straight 
answer  to  two  questions :  Does  this  enterprise 
render  direct  war  service,  or,  if  not,  is  it  essen- 
tial to  the  well-being  of  our  citizens! 

But  the  discipline  will  not  come  from  the 
gods.  Nor  will  our  government  readily  turn 
task-master.  The  effort  must  come  largely  as 
self-discipline,  growing  into  group  determina- 
tion to  win  the  war  and  the  conviction  that  it  is 
impossible  to  achieve  victory  and  conserve  the 
virility  of  our  people,  if  any  considerable  part 
of  the  community  devotes  its  time,  energy  and 
money  to  creating  useless  things.  A  nation  can 
make  good  in  this  cataclysm  only  if  it  centers 
its  whole  power  on  the  two  objects  in  view: 
military  victory,  and  husbanding  of  life  and 
resources  at  home. 

Let  me  hasten  to  add  that  the  act  of  creating 
a  thing  does  not  include  only  the  processes  of 
industry.  The  act  of  buying  is  creative.  The 
riot  of  luxury  trades  in  the  United  States  will 
not  end  so  long  as  the  American  woman  remains 
a  steady  buyer  of  luxuries.  The  mobilization 
of  women  as  workers  is  no  more  essential  to 
the  triumph  of  our  cause,  than  the  mobilization 


138      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

of  women  for  thrift.  The  beginning  and  end 
of  saving  in  America  rests  almost  entirely  in 
the  hands  of  women.  They  are  the  buyers  in 
the  working  class  and  in  the  professional  class. 
Among  the  wealthy  they  set  the  standard  of 
living. 

Practically  every  appeal  for  thrift  has  been 
addressed  to  the  rich.  I  am  not  referring  to 
the  supply  of  channels  into  which  to  pour  sav- 
ings, but  to  appeals  to  make  the  economies 
which  will  furnish  the  means  to  buy  stamps  or 
bonds.  Those  appeals  are  addressed  almost 
wholly  to  the  well-to-do,  as  for  example,  sug- 
gestions as  to  reducing  courses  at  dinner  or  cut- 
ting out  "that  fourth  meal." 

Self-denial,  no  doubt,  is  supposed  to  be  good 
for  the  millionaire  soul,  but  to  such  it  is  chiefly 
recommended,  I  think,  as  an  example  sure  of 
imitation.  What  the  rich  do,  other  women  will 
follow,  is  the  idea.  But  the  steady  insistence 
that  we  fight  in  this  war  for  democracy  has  put 
into  the  minds  of  the  people  very  definite  de- 
mands for  independence  and  for  freedom. 

In  such  a  democratic  world  the  newly  adopted 
habits  of  the  wealthy  will  not  prove  widely  con- 
vincing. Economy  needs  other  than  an  aristo- 
cratic stimulus. 

I  do  not  mean  to  under-estimate  the  value  of 


" BUSINESS  AS  USUAL"          139 

economy  in  the  well-to-do  class.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  shop  windows  on  Fifth  Avenue  are 
a  severe  commentary  upon  our  present  intel- 
ligence and  earnestness  of  purpose.  No  one,  I 
think,  would  deny  that  it  would  be  a  service  if 
the  woman  of  fashion  ceased  to  drape  fur  here, 
there  and  everywhere  on  her  gowns  except 
where  she  might  really  need  the  thick  pelt  to 
keep  her  warm,  and  instead  saved  the  price 
of  the  garment  which  serves  no  purpose  but 
that  of  display,  and  gave  the  money  in  Lib- 
erty Bonds  to  buy  a  fur-lined  coat  for  some 
soldier,  or  food  for  a  starving  baby  abroad. 
And  overburdened  as  the  railways  are  with 
freight  and  ordinary  passenger  traffic,  I  am 
sure  the  general  public  will  not  fail  to  appre- 
ciate to  the  full  a  self-denial  which  leads  pa- 
trons of  private  cars,  Pullman  and  dining 
coaches  to  abandon  their  self-indulgence. 

Undoubtedly  economy  among  the  rich  is  of 
value.  I  presume  few  would  gainsay  that  it 
would  have  been  well  for  America  if  the  use  of 
private  automobiles  had  long  since  ceased,  and 
the  labor  and  plants  used  in  their  making  turned 
to  manufacturing  much-needed  trucks  and  am- 
bulances. But  while  not  inclined  to  belittle  the 
work  of  any  possible  saving  and  self-sacrifice 
on  the  part  of  those  of  wealth,  it  seems  to  me 


140     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWEK 

that  the  most  fruitful  field  for  war  economy  lies 
among  simple  people.  Thrift  waits  for  democ- 
ratization. 

We  of  limited  means  hug  some  of  the  most 
extravagant  of  habits.  The  average  working- 
class  family  enjoys  none  of  the  fruits  of  co- 
operation. We  keep  each  to  our  isolated  family 
group,  while  the  richer  a  person  is  the  more 
does  she  gather  under  her  roof  representatives 
of  other  families.  Her  cook  may  come  from 
the  Berri  family,  the  waitress  may  be  an  An- 
dersen, the  nurse  an  O'Hara. 

The  poor  might  well  practice  the  economy  of 
fellowship. 

The  better-off  live  in  apartment  houses  where 
the  economy  of  central  heating  is  practised, 
while  the  majority  of  the  poor  occupy  tene- 
ments where  the  extravagance  of  the  individual 
stove  is  indulged  in.  The  saving  of  coal  is 
urged,  but  the  authorities  do  not  seek  to  secure 
for  the  poor  the  comfort  of  the  true  method  of 
fuel  saving. 

The  richer  a  family  is,  the  more  it  saves  by 
the  use  of  skilled  service.  The  poor,  clinging 
to  their  prejudices  and  refusing  to  trust  one 
another,  do  not  profit  by  cooperative  buying,  or 
by  central  kitchens  run  by  experts.  Money  is 
wasted  by  amateurish  selection  of  food  and 


"BUSINESS  AS  USUAL"          141 

clothing,  and  nutritive  values  are  squandered  by 
poor  cooking. 

Unfortunately  Uncle  Sam  does  not  suggest 
how  many  War  Saving  Stamps  could  be  bought 
as  a  result  of  economy  along  these  lines. 

The  woman  with  the  pay  envelope  may 
democratize  thrift.  She  knows  how  hard  it  is 
to  earn  money,  and  has  learned  to  make  her 
wages  reach  a  long  way.  Then,  too,  she  has 
it  brought  home  to  her  each  pay  day  that  health 
is  capital.  She  finds  that  it  is  economy  to  keep 
well,  for  lost  time  brings  a  light  pay  envelope. 
Every  woman  who  keeps  herself  in  condition 
is  making  a  war  saving.  There  has  been  no 
propaganda  as  yet  appealing  to  women  to  value 
dress  according  to  durability  and  comfort 
rather  than  according  to  its  prettiness,  to  bow 
to  no  fashion  which  means  the  lessening  of 
power.  To  corset  herself  as  fashion  dictates, 
to  prop  herself  on  high  heels,  means  to  a  woman 
just  so  much  lost  efficiency,  and  even  the  most 
thoughtless,  if  appealed  to  for  national  saving, 
might  learn  to  turn  by  preference  in  dress,  in 
habits,  in  recreation,  to  the  simple  things. 

The  Japanese,  I  am  told,  make  a  ceremony 
of  going  out  from  the  city  to  enjoy  the  beauties 
of  a  moonlight  night.  We  go  to  a  stuffy  theatre 
and  applaud  a  night  "set."  Nature  gives  her 


142      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

children  the  one,  and  the  producer  charges  his 
patrons  for  the  other.  A  propaganda  of  demo- 
cratic war  economy  would  teach  us  to  delight 
in  the  beauties  of  nature. 

In  making  the  change  from  business  as  usual 
to  economy,  Europe  suffered  hardship,  because 
although  the  retrenchments  suggested  were 
fairly  democratic  it  had  not  created  channels 
into  which  savings  might  be  thrown  with  cer- 
tainty of  their  flowing  on  to  safe  expenditures. 
Europe  was  not  ready  with  its  great  thrift 
schemes,  nor  had  the  adjustments  been  made 
which  would  enable  a  shop  to  turn  out  a  needed 
uniform,  let  us  say,  in  place  of  a  useless  dress. 

Definite  use  of  savings  has  been  provided  for 
in  the  United  States.  The  government  needs 
goods  of  every  kind  to  make  our  military  effort 
successful.  Camps  must  be  built  for  training 
the  soldiers,  uniforms,  guns  and  ammunition 
supplied.  Transportation  on  land  and  sea  is 
called  for.  The  government  needs  money  to 
carry  on  the  industries  essential  to  winning  the 
war. 

If  a  plucky  girl  who  works  in  a  button  fac- 
tory refuses  to  buy  an  ornament  which  she  at 
first  thought  of  getting  to  decorate  her  belt,  and 
puts  that  twenty-five  cents  into  a  War  Saving 
Stamp,  all  in  the  spirit  of  backing  up  her  man 


" BUSINESS  AS  USUAL"          143 

at  the  front,  she  will  not  find  herself  thrown  out 
of  employment ;  instead,  while  demands  for  un- 
necessary ornamental  fastenings  will  gradually 
cease,  she  will  be  kept  busy  on  government  or- 
ders. 

Profiting  by  the  errors  of  those  nations  who 
had  to  blaze  out  new  paths,  the  United  States 
knit  into  law,  a  few  months  after  the  declara- 
tion of  war,  not  only  the  quick  drafting  of  its 
man-power  for  military  service,  but  methods  of 
absorbing  the  people's  savings.  If  we  neither 
waste  nor  hoard,  we  will  not  suffer  as  did  Eu- 
rope from  wide-spread  unemployment.  There 
is  more  work  to  be  done  than  our  available 
labor-power  can  meet. 

There  is  nothing  to  fear  from  the  curtail- 
ment of  luxury;  our  danger  lies  in  lack  of  a 
sound  definition  of  extravagance.  Uncle  Sam 
could  get  more  by  appeals  to  simple  folk  than  by 
homilies  preached  to  the  rich.  The  Great  War 
is  a  conflict  between  the  ideals  of  the  peoples. 
'Tis  a  people 's  war,  and  with  women  as  half  the 
people.  The  savings  made  to  support  the  war 
must  needs,  then,  be  made  by  the  people,  for 
the  people. 

There  has  been  no  compelling  propaganda 
to  that  end.  The  suggestion  of  mere  "cutting 
down"  may  be  a  valuable  goal  to  set  for  the 


144     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

well-to-do,  but  it  is  not  a  mark  to  be  hit  by  those 
already  down  to  bed  rock.  The  only  saving 
possible  to  those  living  on  narrow  margins  is  by 
cooperation,  civil  or  state. 

It  is  a  mad  extravagance,  for  instance,  to  kill 
with  autos  children  at  play  in  the  streets.  A 
saving  of  life  could  easily  be  achieved  through 
group  action,  by  securing  children's  attendants, 
by  opening  play-grounds  on  the  roofs  of 
churches  and  public  buildings,  by  shutting  off 
streets  dedicated  to  the  sacred  right  of  children 
to  play.  This  would  be  a  war  saving  touching 
the  heart  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  people. 

Central  municipal  heating  is  not  a  wild  dream, 
but  a  recognized  economy  in  many  places. 
Municipal  kitchens  are  not  vague  surmisings, 
but  facts  achieved  in  the  towns  of  Europe. 
They  are  forms  of  war  thrift.  In  America  no 
such  converting  examples  of  economy  are  as  yet 
given,  and  not  an  appeal  has  been  made  to 
women  to  save  through  solidarity. 

Uncle  Sam  has  been  commendably  quick  and 
wise  in  offering  a  reservoir  to  hold  the  tiny 
savings,  but  slow  in  starting  a  democratic 
propaganda  suggesting  ways  of  saving  the  pen- 
nies. 

If  business  as  usual  is  a  poor  motto,  so  is  life 
as  usual,  habits  as  usual. 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO" 

MAN'S  admiration  for  things  as  mother 
used  to  do  them  is  as  great  an  obstacle  as 
business  as  usual  in  the  path  of  winning  the  war 
and  husbanding  the  race.  The  glamour  sur- 
rounding the  economic  feats  of  mother  in  the 
past  hides  the  shortcomings  of  today. 

I  once  saw  one  of  her  old  fortresses,  a  manor 
house  where  in  bygone  days  she  had  reigned 
supreme.  In  the  court  yard  was  the  smoke 
house  where  she  cured  meat  and  fish.  In  the 
cellar  were  the  caldrons  and  vats  where  long 
ago  she  tried  tallow  and  brewed  beer.  And 
there  were  all  the  utensils  for  dealing  with 
flax.  In  the  garret  I  saw  the  spindles  for  spin- 
ning cotton  and  wool,  and  the  hand  looms  for 
weaving  the  homespun.  In  her  day,  mother 
was  a  great  creator  of  wealth. 

But  then  an  economic  earthquake  came. 
Foundations  were  shaken,  the  roof  was  torn  off 
her  domestic  workshop.  Steam  and  machinery, 
like  cyclones,  carried  away  her  industries,  and 

145 


146      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

nothing  was  left  to  her  but  odds  and  ends  of 
occupations. 

Toiling  in  the  family  circle  from  the  days  of 
the  cave  dwellers,  mother  had  become  so  inti- 
mately associated  in  the  tribal  mind  with  the 
hearthstone  that  the  home  was  called  her  sphere. 
Around  this  segregation  accumulated  accretions 
of  opinion,  layer  on  layer  emanating  from  the 
mind  of  her  mate.  Let  us  call  the  accretions 
the  Adamistic  Theory.  Its  authors  happened 
to  be  the  government  and  could  use  the  public 
treasury  in  furtherance  of  publicity  for  their 
ideas  set  forth  in  hieroglyphics  cut  in  stone,  or 
written  in  plain  English  and  printed  on  the 
front  page  of  an  American  daily. 

One  of  the  few  occupations  left  to  mother 
after  the  disruption  of  her  sphere  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century  was  the  preparation 
of  food.  In  the  minds  of  men,  food,  from  its 
seed  sowing  up  to  its  mastication,  has  always 
been  associated  with  woman.  Mention  food 
and  the  average  man  thinks  of  mother.  That 
is  the  Adam  in  him.  And  so,  quite  naturally, 
one  must  first  consider  this  relation  of  women 
to  food  in  the  Adamistic  Theory. 

When  the  world  under  war  conditions  asked 
to  be  fed,  Adam,  running  true  to  his  theory, 
pointed  to  mother  as  the  source  of  supply,  and 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      147 

declared  with  an  emphasis  that  came  of  im- 
plicit faith,  that  the  universe  need  want  for 
nothing,  if  each  woman  would  eliminate  waste 
in  her  kitchen  and  become  a  voluntary  and 
obedient  reflector  of  the  decisions  of  state  and 
national  food  authorities.  This  solution  pre- 
supposed a  highly  developed  sense  of  commu- 
nity devotion  in  women  running  hand  in  hand 
with  entire  lack  of  gift  for  community  action. 
Woman,  it  was  expected,  would  display  more 
than  her  proverbial  lack  of  logic  by  embracing 
with  enthusiasm  state  direction  and  at  the  same 
time  remain  an  exemplar  of  individualistic 
performance.  The  Adamistic  scheme  seems 
still  further  to  demand  for  its  smooth  working 
that  the  feminine  group  show  self-abnegation 
and  agree  that  it  is  not  itself  suited  to  reason 
out  general  plans. 

It  is  within  the  range  of  possibility,  however, 
that  no  comprehensive  scheme  of  food  conserva- 
tion or  effective  saving  in  any  line  can  be  im- 
posed on  women  without  consulting  them.  The 
negro  who  agreed  "dat  de  colored  folk  should 
keep  in  dar  places,"  touched  a  fundamental 
note  in  human  nature,  over-running  sex  as  well 
as  racial  boundaries,  when  he  added,  "and  de 
colored  folk  must  do  de  placin'."  It  might 
seem  to  run  counter  to  this  bit  of  wisdom  for 


148     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

women  to  be  told  that  the  welfare  of  the  world 
depends  upon  them,  and  then  for  no  woman  to 
be  given  administrative  power  to  mobilize  the 
group. 

But  the  contest  between  man's  devotion  to 
the  habits  of  his  ancestry  in  the  female  line, 
and  the  ideas  of  his  very  living  women  folk,  is 
as  trying  to  him  as  it  is  interesting  to  the 
outside  observer.  The  conflicting  forces  illus- 
trate a  universal  fact.  It  is  always  true  that 
the  ruling  class,  when  a  discipline  and  a  sacri- 
fice are  recognized  as  necessary,  endeavors  to 
make  it  appear  that  the  new  obligation  should 
be  shouldered  by  the  less  powerful.  For  in- 
stance, to  take  an  illustration  quite  outside  the 
domestic  circle,  when  America  first  became  con- 
vinced that  military  preparation  was  incumbent 
upon  us,  the  ruling  class  would  scarcely  discuss 
conscription,  much  less  adopt  universal  service. 
That  is,  it  vetoed  self-discipline.  In  many 
States,  laws  were  passed  putting  off  upon  chil- 
dren in  the  schools  the  training  which  the  voting 
adults  knew  the  nation  needed. 

In  the  same  way,  when  food  falls  short  and 
the  victualing  of  the  world  becomes  a  pressing 
duty,  the  governing  class  adopts  a  thesis  that 
a  politically  less-favored  group  can,  by  saving 
in  small  and  painful  ways,  accumulate  the  extra 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      149 

food  necessary  to  keep  the  world  from  starving. 
The  ruling  class  seeks  cover  in  primitive  ideas, 
accuses  Eve  of  introducing  sin  into  the  world, 
and  calls  upon  her  to  mend  her  wasteful  ways. 

Men,  of  course,  know  intellectually  that  much 
food  is  a  factory  product  in  these  days,  but 
emotionally  they  have  a  picture  of  mother, 
still  supplying  the  family  in  a  complete,  secret, 
and  silent  manner. 

This  Adamistic  emotion  takes  command  at 
the  crisis,  for  when  human  beings  are  suddenly 
faced  with  a  new  and  agitating  situation,  primi- 
tive ideas  seize  them.  Mother,  it  is  true,  did 
create  the  goods  for  immediate  consumption, 
and  so  the  sons  of  Adam,  in  a  spirit  of  admira- 
tion, doffing  their  helmets,  so  to  speak,  to  the 
primitive  woman,  turn  in  this  time  of  stress  and 
call  confidently  upon  Eve 's  daughters  to  create 
and  save.  The  confidence  is  touching,  but  per- 
haps the  feminine  reaction  will  not  be,  and  per- 
chance ought  not  to  be  just  such  as  Adam  ex- 
pects. 

Women  have  passed  in  aspiration,  and  to 
some  extent  in  action,  out  of  the  ultra-individ- 
ualistic stage  of  civilization. 

The  food  propaganda  reflects  the  hiatus  in 
Adam 's  thought.  I  have  looked  over  hundreds 
of  publications  issued  by  the  agricultural  de- 


150      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

partments  and  colleges  of  the  various  States. 
They  tell  housewives  what  to  "put  into  the  gar- 
bage pail,"  what  to  "keep  out  of  the  garbage 
pail,"  what  to  substitute  for  wheat,  how  to  make 
soap,  but,  with  a  single  exception,  not  a  word 
issued  suggests  to  women  any  saving  through 
group  action. 

This  exception,  which  stood  out  as  a  beacon 
light  in  an  ocean  of  literature  worthy  of  the 
Stone  Age,  was  a  small  pamphlet  issued  by  the 
Michigan  Agricultural  College  on  luncheons  in 
rural  schools.  Sound  doctrine  was  preached 
on  the  need  of  the  children  for  substantial  and 
warm  noon  meals,  and  the  comparative  ease  and 
economy  with  which  such  luncheons  could  be 
provided  at  the  school  house.  Children  can  of 
course  be  better  and  more  cheaply  fed  as  a 
group  than  as  isolated  units  supplied  with  a  cold 
home-prepared  lunch  box.  And  yet  with  the 
whole  machinery  of  the  state  in  his  hands, 
Adam's  commissions,  backed  by  the  people's 
money,  goad  mother  on  to  isolated  endeavor. 
She  plants  and  weeds  and  harvests.  She  dries 
and  cans,  preserves  and  pickles.  Then  she  cal- 
culates and  perchance  finds  that  her  finished 
product  is  not  always  of  the  best  and  has  often 
cost  more  than  if  purchased  in  the  open  market. 

It  may  be  the  truest  devotion  to  our  Allies  to 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      151 

challenge  the  individualistic  role  recommended 
by  Adam  to  mother,  for  it  will  hinder,  not  help, 
the  feeding  of  the  world  to  put  women  back 
under  eighteenth  century  conditions.  Food  is 
short  and  expensive  because  labor  is  short. 
And  even  when  the  harvest  is  ripe,  the  saving  of 
food  cannot  be  set  as  a  separate  and  commend- 
able goal,  and  the  choice  as  to  where  labor  shall 
be  expended  as  negligible.  It  is  a  prejudiced 
devotion  to  mother  and  her  ways  which  leads 
Adam  in  his  food  pamphlets  to  advise  that  a 
woman  shall  sit  in  her  chimney  corner  and 
spend  time  peeling  a  peach  "very  thin,"  when 
hundreds  of  bushels  of  peaches  rot  in  the  or- 
chards for  lack  of  hands  to  pick  them. 

Just  how  wide  Adam's  Eve  has  opened  the 
gate  of  Eden  and  looked  out  into  the  big  world 
is  not  entirely  clear,  but  probably  wide  enough 
to  glimpse  the  fact  that  all  the  advice  Adam 
has  recently  given  to  her  runs  counter  to  man's 
method  of  achievement.  Men  have  preached 
to  one  another  for  a  hundred  years  and  more 
and  practiced  so  successfully  the  concentration 
in  industry  of  unlimited  machinery  with  a  few 
hands,  that  even  mother  knows  some  of  the 
truths  in  regard  to  the  creation  of  wealth  in  the 
business  world,  and  she  is  probably  not  incap- 
able of  drawing  a  conclusion  from  her  own  ex- 


152     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

perience  in  the  transfer  of  work  from  the  home 
to  the  factory. 

If  they  are  city  dwellers,  women  have  seen 
bread  and  preserves  transferred;  if  farm 
dwellers,  they  have  seen  the  curing  of  meat  and 
fish  transferred,  the  making  of  butter  and 
cheese.  They  know  that  because  of  this  trans- 
fer the  home  is  cleaner  and  quieter,  more  peo- 
ple better  fed  and  clothed,  and  the  hours  of 
the  factory  worker  made  shorter  than  those 
"mother  used  to  work."  With  half  an  eye 
women  cannot  fail  to  note  that  the  labor  which 
used  to  be  occupied  in  the  home  in  interminable 
hours  of  spinning,  baking  and  preserving,  has 
come  to  occupy  itself  for  regulated  periods  in 
the  school,  in  business,  in  factory  or  cannery. 
And  lo,  Eve  finds  herself  with  a  pay  envelope 
able  to  help  support  the  quieter,  cleaner  home ! 

All  this  is  a  commonplace  to  the  business 
man,  who  knows  that  the  evolution  has  gone  so 
far  that  ten  percent  of  the  married  women  of 
America  are  in  gainful  pursuits,  and  that  capi- 
tal ventured  on  apartment  hotels  brings  a 
tempting  return. 

But  the  Adamistic  theory  is  based  on  the 
dream  that  women  are  contentedly  and  effici- 
ently conducting  in  their  flats  many  occupations, 
and  longing  to  receive  back  into  the  life  around 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      153 

the  gas-log  all  those  industries  which  in  years 
gone  by  were  drawn  from  the  fireside  and  estab- 
lished as  money  making  projects  in  mill  or 
work-shop.  And  so  Adam  addresses  an  exhor- 
tation to  his  Eve:  "Don't  buy  bread,  bake  it; 
don't  buy  flour,  grind  your  own ;  don't  buy  soap, 
make  it;  don't  buy  canned,  preserved,  or  dried 
food,  carry  on  the  processes  yourself;  don't 
buy  fruits  and  vegetables,  raise  them." 

Not  a  doubt  seems  to  exist  in  Adam's  mind 
as  to  the  efficiency  of  functioning  woman-power 
in  this  way.  According  to  the  Adamistic  the- 
ory, work  as  mother  used  to  do  it  is  unquali- 
fiedly perfect.  This  flattering  faith  is  natu- 
rally balm  to  women's  hearts,  and  yet  there  are 
skeptics  among  them.  When  quite  by  them- 
selves women  speculate  as  to  how  much  of  the 
fruit  and  vegetables  now  put  up  in  the  home  will 
"work." 

They  smile  when  the  hope  is  expressed  that 
the  quality  will  rise  above  the  old-time  domestic 
standard.  The  home  of  the  past  was  a  beehive 
in  which  women  drudged,  and  little  children 
were  weary  toilers,  and  the  result  was  not  of  a 
high  grade.  Statistics  have  shown  that  sev- 
enty-five percent  of  the  home-made  bread  of 
America  was  a  poor  product.  I  lived  as  a  child 
in  the  days  of  home-made  bread.  Once  in  so 


154      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

often  the  batch  of  bread  "went  sour,"  and  there 
seemed  to  be  an  unfailing  supply  of  stale  bread 
which  "must  be  eaten  first."  Those  who  cry 
out  against  a  city  of  bakers'  bread,  have  never 
lived  in  a  country  of  the  home-made  loaf.  It 
is  the  Adamistic  philosophy,  so  complimentary 
to  Eve,  that  leads  us  to  expect  that  all  house- 
wives can  turn  out  a  product  as  good  as  that  of 
an  expert  who  has  specialized  to  the  one  end 
of  making  bread,  and  who  is  supplied  with  ex- 
pensive equipment  beyond  the  reach  of  the  in- 
dividual to  possess.  But  there  are  rebellious 
consumers  who  point  out  that  the  baker  is  under 
the  law,  while  the  housewife  is  a  law  unto  her- 
self. Against  the  baker's  shortcomings  such 
brave  doubters  assure  us  we  have  redress,  we 
can  refuse  to  patronize  him ;  against  the  house- 
wife there  is  no  appeal,  her  family  must  swal- 
low her  product  to  the  detriment  of  digestion. 
It  may  be  the  brutal  truth,  taking  bread  as 
the  index,  that  only  a  quarter  of  the  processes 
carried  on  in  the  home  turn  out  satisfactorily, 
while  of  the  other  three-quarters,  a  just  ver- 
dict may  show  that  mother  gets  a  "little  too 
much  lye"  in  the  soap,  cooks  the  preserves  a 
"little  too  hard,"  "candies  the  fruit  just  a  little 
bit,"  and  grinds  the  flour  in  the  mill  "not  quite 
fine  enough. ' ' 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      155 

But  perhaps  even  more  than  the  quality  of 
the  product  does  the  question  of  the  economical 
disposition  of  labor-power  agitate  some  women. 
They  are  asking,  since  labor  is  very  scarce, 
whether  the  extreme  individualistic  direction  of 
their  labor-power  is  permissible.  The  vast  ma- 
jority of  American  homes  are  without  servants. 
In  those  homes  are  the  women  working  such 
short  hours  that  they  can,  without  dropping  im- 
portant obligations,  take  over  preserving,  can- 
ning, dehydrating,  the  making  of  bread,  soap, 
and  butter  substitute  f  Has  the  tenement-house 
dweller  accommodation  suitable  for  introduc- 
ing these  industrial  processes  into  her  home? 
Would  the  woman  in  the  small  menage  in  the 
country  be  wise  in  cutting  down  time  given,  for 
instance,  to  the  care  of  her  baby  and  to  reading 
to  the  older  children,  and  using  the  precious 
moments  laboriously  to  grind  wheat  to  flour! 
My  observation  convinces  me  that  conscien- 
tious housewives  in  servantless  or  one-servant 
households,  with  work  adjusted  to  a  given  end, 
with  relative  values  already  determined  upon, 
are  not  prepared  by  acceptance  of  the  Adamistic 
theory  to  return  to  primitive  occupations. 

But  even  if  business  and  home  life  could  re- 
spond to  the  change  without  strain,  even  if  both 
could  easily  turn  back  on  the  road  they  have 


156     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

come  during  the  last  hundred  years,  commerce 
yielding  up  and  the  home  re-adopting  certain 
occupations,  we  should  carefully  weigh  the 
economic  value  of  a  reversion  to  primitive 
methods. 

The  Adamistic  attitude  is  influenced,  perhaps 
unconsciously  but  no  less  certainly,  by  the  fact 
that  the  housewife  is  an  unpaid  worker.  If  an 
unpaid  person  volunteers  to  do  a  thing,  it  is 
readily  assumed  that  the  particular  effort  is 
worth  while.  "We  get  the  labor  for  nothing" 
puts  to  rout  all  thought  of  valuation.  No  doubt 
Adam  will  have  to  give  over  thinking  in  this 
loose  way.  Labor-power,  whether  it  is  paid  for 
or  not,  must  be  used  wisely  or  we  shall  not  be 
able  to  maintain  the  structure  of  our  civiliza- 
tion. 

Then,  too,  the  Adamistic  theory  weighs  and 
values  the  housewife's  time  as  little  as  it  ques- 
tions the  quality  of  the  home  product.  Any 
careful  reader  of  the  various  "Hints  to  House- 
wives" which  have  appeared,  will  note  that  the 
"simplifying  of  meals"  recommended  would 
require  nearly  double  the  time  to  prepare.  The 
simplification  takes  into  consideration  only  the 
question  of  food  substitutions,  price  and  waste. 
Mother  is  supposed  to  be  wholly  or  largely  un- 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      157 

employed  and  longing  for  unpaid  toil.  Should 
any  housewife  conscientiously  follow  the  advice 
given  her  by  state  and  municipal  authorities 
she  would  be  the  drudge  at  the  center  of  a  home 
quite  medieval  in  development. 

Let  us  take  a  concrete  example: — In  a  re- 
cently published  and  widely  applauded  cook- 
book put  out  by  a  whole  committee  of  Adamistic 
philosophers,  it  is  stated  that  the  object  of  the 
book  is  to  give  practical  hints  as  to  the  various 
ways  in  which  "economies  can  be  effected  and 
waste  saved ;"  and  yet  no  saving  of  the  woman's 
time,  nerves  and  muscles  is  referred  to  from 
cover  to  cover.  The  housewife  is  told,  for  in- 
stance, to  "insist  upon  getting  the  meat  trim- 
mings." The  fat  "can  be  rendered."  And 
then  follows  the  process  in  soap-making. 
Mother  is  to  place  the  scraps  of  fat  on  the  back 
of  the  stove.  If  she  "watches  it  carefully"  and 
does  not  allow  it  to  get  hot  enough  to  smoke 
there  will  be  no  odor.  No  doubt  if  she  removes 
her  watchful  eye  and  turns  to  bathe  her  baby, 
her  tenement  will  reek  with  smoking  fat.  She 
is  to  pursue  this  trying  of  fat  and  nerves  day 
by  day  until  she  has  six  pounds  of  grease. 
Next,  she  is  to  "stir  it  well,"  cool  it,  melt  it 
again;  she  is  then  to  pour  in  the  lye,  "slowly 


158     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWEB 

stirring  all  the  time."  Add  ammonia.  Then 
"stir  the  mixture  constantly  for  twenty  min- 
utes or  half  an  hour." 

In  contrast  to  all  this  primeval  elaboration  is 
the  simple,  common-sense  rule :  Do  not  buy  the 
trimmings,  make  the  butcher  trim  meat  before 
weighing,  insist  that  soap-making  shall  not  be 
brought  back  to  defile  the  home,  but  remain 
where  it  belongs,  a  trade  in  which  the  workers 
can  be  protected  by  law,  and  its  malodorous- 
ness  brought  under  regulation. 

In  the  same  spirit  the  Adamistic  suggestion 
to  Eve  to  save  coal  by  a  "heatless  day"  is  met 
by  the  cold  challenge  of  the  riotous  extrava- 
gance of  cooking  in  twelve  separate  tenements, 
twelve  separate  potatoes,  on  twelve  separate 
fires. 

The  Adamistic  theory,  through  its  emphasis 
on  the  relation  of  food  to  Eve,  and  the  almost 
religious  necessity  of  its  manipulation  at  the 
altar  of  the  home  cook-stove,  has  drawn  thought 
away  from  the  nutritive  side  of  what  we  eat. 
While  the  child  in  the  streets  is  tossing  about 
such  words  as  calories  and  carbohydrates  with 
a  glibness  that  comes  of  much  hearing,  physiol- 
ogy and  food  values  are  destined  to  remain  as 
far  away  as  ever  from  the  average  family  break- 
fast table.  Segregating  a  sex  in  the  home,  it  is 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      159 

true,  centralizes  it  in  a  given  place,  but  it  does 
not  necessarily  train  the  individual  to  function 
efficiently.  Mother,  as  she  "used  to  do,"  cooks 
by  rule  of  thumb;  in  fact,  how  could  she  do 
otherwise,  since  she  must  keep  one  eye  on  her 
approving  Adam  while  the  other  eye  glances  at 
the  oven.  The  Adamistic  theory  requires  in- 
dividualistic action,  and  disapproves  special- 
ization in  Eve. 

The  theory  also  demands  economic  depend- 
ence in  the  home  builder.  Mother 's  labor  is  not 
her  own,  she  lives  under  the  truck  system,  so  to 
speak.  She  is  paid  in  kind  for  her  work.  In- 
fluenced by  the  Adamistic  theory,  the  human 
animal  is  the  only  species  in  which  sex  and  eco- 
nomic relations  are  closely  linked,  the  only  one 
in  which  the  female  depends  upon  the  male  for 
sustenance.  Mother  must  give  personal  serv- 
ice to  those  about  her,  and  in  return  the  law  en- 
sures her  keep  according  to  the  station  of  her 
husband,  that  is,  not  according  to  her  ability  or 
usefulness,  but  according  to  the  man's  earning 
capacity. 

The  close  association  of  mother  with  home  in 
the  philosophy  of  her  mate,  has  circumscribed 
her  most  natural  and  modest  attempts  at  re- 
laxation. Mother's  holiday  is  a  thing  to  draw 
tears  from  those  who  contemplate  it.  The  sum- 


160     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

mer  outing  means  carrying  the  family  from  one 
spot  to  another,  and  making  the  best  of  new  sur- 
roundings for  the  old  group.  The  "day  off" 
means  a  concentration  of  the  usual  toil  into  a 
few  hours,  followed  by  a  hazy  passing  show 
that  she  is  too  weary  to  enjoy.  The  kindly 
farmer  takes  his  wife  this  year  to  the  county 
fair.  She's  up  at  four  to  "get  on'*  with  the 
work.  She  serves  breakfast,  gives  the  children 
an  extra  polish  in  honor  of  the  day,  puts  on  the 
clean  frocks  and  suits  with  an  admonition  "not 
to  get  all  mussed  up"  before  the  start.  The 
farmer  cheerily  counsels  haste  in  order  that 
*  *  we  may  have  a  good  long  day  of  it. ' '  He  does 
not  say  what  "it"  is,  but  the  wife  knows.  At 
last  the  house  is  ready  to  be  left,  and  the  wife 
and  her  brood  are  ready  to  settle  down  in  the 
farm  wagon. 

The  fair  grounds  are  reached.  Adam  has 
prepared  the  setting.  It  has  no  relation  to 
mother's  needs.  It  was  a  most  thrilling  inno- 
vation when  in  the  summer  of  1914  the  Women's 
Political  Union  first  set  up  big  tents  at  county 
fairs,  fitted  with  comfortable  chairs  for  mother, 
and  cots  and  toys,  nurses  and  companions  for 
the  children.  The  farmer's  wife  for  the  first 
time  was  relieved  of  care,  and  could  go  off  to 
see  the  sights  with  her  mind  at  rest,  if  she  de- 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      161 

sired  anything  more  active  than  rocking  lazily 
with  the  delicious  sensation  of  having  nothing 
to  do. 

Women  must  not  blame  Adam  for  lack  of 
thoughtfulness.  He  cannot  put  himself  in 
mother's  place.  She  must  do  her  own  thinking 
or  let  women  who  are  capable  of  thought  do  it 
for  her. 

Men  are  relieved  when  mother  is  independent 
and  happy.  The  farmer  approved  the  creche 
tent  at  the  county  fairs.  It  convinced  him  that 
women  have  ideas  to  contribute  to  the  well- 
being  of  the  community.  The  venture  proved 
the  greatest  of  vote  getters  for  the  suffrage 
referendum. 

In  fact,  men  themselves  are  the  chief  oppo- 
nents of  the  Adamistic  theory  to-day.  The  ma- 
jority want  women  to  organize  the  home  and  it 
is  only  a  small  minority  who  place  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  the  wider  functioning  of  women. 
It  is  Eve  herself  who  likes  to  exaggerate  the 
necessity  of  her  personal  service.  I  have  seen 
many  a  primitive  housewife  grow  hot  at  the 
suggestion  that  her  methods  need  modifying. 
It  seemed  like  severing  the  silken  cords  by  which 
she  held  her  mate,  to  challenge  her  pumpkin  pie. 

But  women  are  slowly  overcoming  Eve.  Take 
the  item  of  the  care  of  children  in  city  parks. 


162      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

The  old  way  is  for  fifty  women  to  look  after 
fifty  separate  children,  and  thus  waste  the  time 
of  some  thirty  of  them  in  keeping  fifty  miser- 
able children  in  segregation.  The  new  way, 
now  successfully  initiated,  is  to  form  play 
groups  of  happy  children  under  the  leadership 
of  capable  young  women  trained  for  such  work. 

Salvaging  New  York  City's  food  waste  was  a 
very  splendid  bit  of  cooperative  action  on  the 
part  of  women.  Mrs.  William  H.  Lough  of  the 
Women's  University  Club  found  on  investiga- 
tion that  thousands  of  tons  of  good  food  are  lost 
by  a  condemnation,  necessarily  rough  and 
ready,  by  the  Board  of  Health.  She  secured 
permission  to  have  the  sound  and  unsound  fruits 
and  vegetables  separated  and  with  a  large  com- 
mittee of  women  saved  the  food  for  consump- 
tion by  the  community  by  dehydrating  and  other 
preserving  processes. 

This  was  not  as  mother  used  to  do. 

Mother 's  ways  are  being  investigated  and  dis- 
carded the  whole  world  round.  At  last  accounts 
half  the  population  of  Hamburg  was  being  fed 
through  municipal  kitchens  and  in  Great  Britain 
an  order  has  been  issued  by  Lord.  Rhondda,  the 
Food  Controller,  authorizing  local  authorities 
to  open  kitchens  as  food  distributing  centers. 
The  central  government  is  to  bear  twenty-five 


"AS  MOTHER  USED  TO  DO"      163 

percent  of  the  cost  of  equipment  and  lend  an- 
other twenty-five  percent  to  start  the  enter- 
prise. 

Mother's  cook  stove  cannot  bear  the  strain 
of  war  economies. 

Dropping  their  old  segregation,  women  are 
going  forth  in  fellowship  with  men  to  meet  in 
new  ways  the  pressing  problems  of  a  new  world. 


XI 

A  LAND  ARMY 

GREAT  BRITAIN,  France  and  Germany 
have  mobilized  a  land  army  of  women; 
will  the  United  States  do  less?  Not  if  the 
farmer  can  be  brought  to  have  as  much  faith  in 
American  women  as  the  women  have  in  them- 
selves. And  why  should  they  not  have  faith; 
the  farm  has  already  tested  them  out,  and  they 
have  not  been  found  wanting.  In  face  of  this 
fine  accomplishment  the  minds  of  some  men  still 
entertain  doubt,  or  worse,  obliviousness,  to  the 
possible  contribution  of  women  to  land  service. 
The  farmer  knows  his  need  and  has  made 
clear  statement  of  the  national  dilemma  in  the 
form  of  a  memorial  to  the  President  of  the 
United  States.  In  part,  it  is  as  follows : 

"If  food  is  to  win  the  war,  as  we  are  assured  on 
every  side,  the  farmers  of  America  must  produce  more 
food  in  1918  than  they  did  in  1917.  Under  existing 
conditions  we  cannot  equal  the  production  of  1917, 
much  less  surpass  it,  and  this  for  reasons  over  which 
the  farmers  have  no  control. 

164 


A  LAND  ARMY  165 

"The  chief  causes  which  will  inevitably  bring  about 
a  smaller  crop  next  year,  unless  promptly  removed  by 
national  action,  are  six  in  number,  of  which  the  first  is 
the  shortage  of  farm  labor. 

"Since  the  war  began  in  1914  and  before  the  first 
draft  was  made  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  more 
farm  workers  had  left  farms  than  there  are  men  in 
our  army  and  navy  together.  Those  men  were  drawn 
away  by  the  high  wages  paid  in  munition  plants  and 
other  war  industries,  and  their  places  remain  unfilled. 
In  spite  of  the  new  classification,  future  drafts  will 
still  further  reduce  the  farm  labor  supply. ' ' 

With  a  million  and  a  half  men  drawn  out  of 
the  country  and  ten  billion  dollars  to  be  ex- 
pended on  war  material,  making  every  ammuni- 
tion factory  a  labor  magnet,  it  seems  like  the 
smooth  deceptions  of  prestidigitation  to  answer 
the  cry  of  the  farmer  with  suggestion  that  men 
rejected  by  the  draft  or  high  school  boys  be 
paroled  to  meet  the  exigency.  The  farm  can't 
be  run  with  decrepit  men  or  larking  boys,  nor 
the  war  won  with  less  than  its  full  quota  of  sol- 
diers. Legislators,  government  officials  and 
farm  associations  by  sudden  shifting  of  labor 
battalions  cannot  camouflage  the  fact  that  the 
front  line  trenches  of  the  fighting  army  and 
labor  force  are  undermanned. 

Women  can  and  will  be  the  substitutes  if  the 


166      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWEE 

experiments  already  made  are  signs  of  the 
times. 

Groups  of  women  from  colleges  and  seasonal 
trades  have  ploughed  and  harrowed,  sowed  and 
planted,  weeded  and  cultivated,  mowed  and  har- 
vested, milked  and  churned,  at  Vassar,  Bryn 
Mawr  and  Mount  Holyoke,  at  Newburg  and 
Milton,  at  Bedford  Hills  and  Mahwah.  It  has 
been  demonstrated  that  our  girls  from  college 
and  city  trade  can  do  farm  work,  and  do  it  with 
a  will.  And  still  better,  at  the  end  of  the  season 
their  health  wins  high  approval  from  the  doctors 
and  their  work  golden  opinions  from  the 
farmers. 

Twelve  crusaders  were  -chosen  from  the 
thirty-three  students  who  volunteered  for  dan- 
gerous service  during  a  summer  vacation  on  the 
Vassar  College  farm.  The  twelve  ventured  out 
on  a  new  enterprise  that  meant  aching  muscles, 
sunburn  and  blisters,  but  not  one  of  the  twelve 
"ever  lost  a  day"  in  their  eight  hours  at  hard 
labor,  beginning  at  four-thirty  each  morning 
for  eight  weeks  during  one  of  our  hottest 
summers.  They  ploughed  with  horses,  they 
ploughed  with  tractors,  they  sowed  the  seed, 
they  thinned  and  weeded  the  plants,  they  reaped, 
they  raked,  they  pitched  the  hay,  they  did  f  enc- 


A  LAND  AKMY  167 

ing  and  milking.  The  Vassar  farm  had  bumper 
crops  on  its  seven  hundred  and  forty  acres,  and 
its  superintendent,  Mr.  Louis  P.  Gillespie,  said, 
"A  very  great  amount  of  the  work  necessary 
for  the  large  production  was  done  by  our  stu- 
dents. They  hoed  and  cultivated  sixteen  acres 
of  field  corn,  ten  acres  of  ensilage  corn,  five 
acres  of  beans,  five  acres  of  potatoes;  carried 
sheaves  of  rye  and  wheat  to  the  shocks  and 
shocked  them;  and  two  of  the  students  milked 
seven  cows  at  each  milking  time.  In  the  gar- 
den they  laid  out  a  strawberry  bed  of  two  thou- 
sand plants,  helped  to  plant  corn  and  beans, 
picked  beans  and  other  vegetables.  They  took 
great  interest  in  the  work  and  did  the  work  just 
as  well  as  the  average  man  and  made  good  far 
beyond  the  most  sanguine  expectations." 

At  first  the  students  were  paid  twenty-five 
cents  an  hour,  the  same  rate  as  the  male  farm 
hands.  The  men  objected,  saying  that  the 
young  women  were  beginners,  but  by  the  end 
of  the  summer  the  critics  realized  that  "brains 
tell"  and  said  the  girls  were  worth  the  higher 
wage,  though  they  had  only  been  getting,  in 
order  to  appease  the  masculine  prejudice,  sev- 
enteen and  a  half  cents  an  hour.  There  is  no 
pleasing  some  people !  If  women  are  paid  less 


168      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

they  are  unfair  competitors,  if  they  are  paid 
equally  they  are  being  petted — in  short,  fair 
competitors. 

Mt.  Holyoke  and  Bryn  Mawr  have  made  ex- 
periments, and,  like  Vassar,  demonstrated  not 
only  that  women  can,  and  that  satisfactorily, 
work  on  the  land,  but  that  they  will,  and  that 
cheerfully.  The  groups  were  happy  and  they 
comprehended  that  they  were  doing  transcen- 
dently  important  work,  were  rendering  a  patri- 
otic service  by  filling  up  the  places  left  vacant 
by  the  drafted  men. 

The  Women's  Agricultural  Camp,  known  pop- 
ularly as  the  "Bedford  Unit,"  proved  an  ex- 
periment rich  in  practical  suggestion.  Bar- 
nard students,  graduates  of  the  Manhattan 
Trade  School,  and  girls  from  seasonal  trades 
formed  the  backbone  of  the  group.  They  were 
housed  in  an  old  farmhouse,  chaperoned  by  one 
of  the  Barnard  professors,  fed  by  student 
dietitians  from  the  Household  Arts  Department 
of  Teachers  College,  transported  from  farm  to 
farm  by  seven  chauffeurs,  and  coached  in  the 
arts  of  Ceres  by  an  agricultural  expert.  The 
"day  laborers"  as  well  as  the  experts  were  all 
women. 

In  founding  the  camp  Mrs.  Charles  W.  Short, 
Jr.,  hajd  three  definite  ideas  in  mind.  First, 


~  1, 


A  LAND  AEMY  169 

she  was  convinced  that  young  women  could  with- 
out ill-effect  on  their  health,  and  should  as  a 
patriotic  service,  do  all  sorts  of  agricultural 
work.  Second,  that  in  the  present  crisis  the 
opening  up  of  new  land  with  women  as  farm 
managers  is  not  called  for,  but  rather  the  sup- 
ply of  the  labor-power  on  farms  already  under 
cultivation  is  the  need.  Third,  that  the  women 
laborers  must,  in  groups,  have  comfortable  liv- 
ing conditions  without  being  a  burden  on  the 
farmer's  wife,  must  have  adequate  pay,  and 
must  have  regulated  hours  of  work. 

With  these  sound  ideas  as  its  foundation  the 
camp  opened  at  Mt.  Kisco,  backed  by  the  Com- 
mittee on  Agriculture  of  the  Mayor's  Com- 
mittee of  Women  on  National  Defense  of  New 
York  City,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Virginia 
Gildersleeve,  Dean  of  Barnard  College. 

At  its  greatest  enrolment  the  unit  had  sev- 
enty-three members.  When  the  prejudice  of 
the  farmers  was  overcome,  the  demand  for 
workers  was  greater  than  the  camp  could  sup- 
ply. Practically  the  same  processes  were  car- 
ried through  as  at  Vassar,  and  the  verdict  of 
the  farmer  on  his  new  helpers  was  that  "while 
less  strong  than  men,  they  more  than  made  up 
for  this  by  superior  conscientiousness  and 
quickness."  Proof  of  the  genuineness  of  his 


170     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

estimate  was  shown  in  his  willingness  to  pay 
the  management  of  the  camp  the  regulation  two 
dollars  for  an  eight  hour  working  day.  And  it 
indicated  entire  satisfaction  with  the  experi- 
ment, rather  than  abstract  faith  in  woman,  that 
each  farmer  anxiously  urged  the  captain  of  the 
group  at  the  end  of  his  first  trial  to  "please 
bring  the  same  young  ladies  tomorrow."  He 
was  sure  no  others  so  good  existed. 

The  unit  plan  seems  a  heaven-born  solution 
of  many  of  the  knotty  problems  of  the  farm. 
In  the  first  place,  the  farmer  gets  cheerful  and 
handy  helpers,  and  his  over-worked  wife  does 
not  find  her  domestic  cares  added  to  in  the  hot 
summer  season.  The  new  hands  house  and 
feed  themselves.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
worker,  the  advantage  is  that  her  food  at  the 
camp  is  prepared  by  trained  hands  and  the 
proverbial  farm  isolation  gives  way  to  con- 
genial companionship. 

These  separate  experiments  growing  out  of 
the  need  of  food  production  and  the  shortage 
of  labor  have  brought  new  blood  to  the  farm, 
have  turned  the  college  girl  on  vacation  and, 
what  is  more  important,  being  a  solution  of  an 
industrial  problem,  the  unemployed  in  seasonal 
trades,  into  recruits  for  an  agricultural  army. 
And  by  concentrating  workers  in  well-run 


A  LAND  ARMY  171 

camps  there  has  been  attracted  to  the  land  a 
higher  order  of  helper. 

One  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  immediate  suc- 
cess of  putting  such  women  on  the  land  is  a 
wholly  mistaken  idea  in  the  minds  of  many  per- 
sons of  influence  in  agricultural  matters  that 
the  new  labor  can  be  diverted  to  domestic  work 
in  the  farm  house.  This  view  is  urged  in  the 
following  letter  to  me  from  the  head  of  one  of 
our  best  agricultural  colleges:  "The  farm 
labor  shortage  is  much  more  acute  than  is  gen- 
erally understood  and  I  have  much  confidence 
in  the  possibility  of  a  great  amount  of  useful 
work  in  food  production  being  done  by  women 
who  are  physically  strong  enough  and  who  can 
secure  sufficient  preliminary  training  to  do  this 
with  some  degree  of  efficiency.  Probably  the 
larger  measure  of  service  could  be  done  by  re- 
lieving women  now  on  the  farms  of  this  State 
from  the  double  burden  of  indoor  work  and  the 
attempt  to  assist  in  farm  operations  and  chores. 
If  farm  women  would  get  satisfactory  domestic 
assistance  within  the  house  they  could  add  much 
to  the  success  of  field  husbandry.  Women  who 
know  farm  conditions  and  who  could  largely 
take  the  place  of  men  in  the  management  of 
outdoor  affairs  can  accomplish  much  more  than 
will  ever  be  possible  by  drafting  city-bred 


172     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

women  directly  into  garden  or  other  forms  of 
field  work." 

The  opinions  expressed  in  this  letter  are  as 
generally  held  as  they  are  mistaken.  In  the 
first  place,  the  theory  that  the  country-bred 
woman  in  America  is  stronger  and  healthier 
than  the  city-bred  has  long  since  been  exploded. 
The  assumption  cannot  stand  up  under  the  facts. 
Statistics  show  that  the  death  rate  in  the  United 
States  is  lower  in  city  than  in  farm  com- 
munities, and  if  any  added  proof  were  needed  to 
indicate  that  the  stamina  of  city  populations 
overbalances  the  country  it  was  furnished  by  the 
draft  records.  Any  group  of  college  and  Man- 
hattan Trade  School  girls  could  be  pitted 
against  a  group  of  women  from  the  farms  and 
win  the  laurels  in  staying  powers.  Nor  must 
it  be  overlooked  that  we  are  not  dealing  here 
with  uncertainties;  the  mettle  of  the  girls  has 
been  proved. 

In  any  case  the  fact  must  be  faced  that  these 
agricultural  units  will  not  do  domestic  work. 
Nine-tenths  of  the  farm  houses  in  America  are 
without  modern  conveniences.  The  well-ap- 
pointed barn  may  have  running  water,  but  the 
house  has  not.  To  undertake  work  as  a  do- 
mestic helper  on  the  average  farm  is  to  step 
back  into  quite  primitive  conditions.  The  farm- 


A  LAND  ARMY  173 

er's  wife  can  attract  no  one  from  city  life, 
where  so  much  cooperation  is  enjoyed,  to  her 
extreme  individualistic  surroundings. 

A  second  obstacle  to  the  employment  of  this 
new  labor-force  is  due  to  the  government's  fail- 
ure to  see  the  possibility  of  saving  most  valu- 
able labor-power  and  achieving  an  economic 
gain  by  dovetailing  the  idle  months  of  young 
women  in  industrial  life  into  the  rush  time  of 
agriculture. 

One  department  suggests  excusing  farm  labor 
from  the  draft,  as  if  we  had  already  fulfilled 
our  obligation  in  man-power  to  the  battlefront 
of  our  Allies.  The  United  States  Senate  dis- 
cusses bringing  in  coolie  and  contract  labor,  as 
if  we  had  not  demonstrated  our  unfitness  to 
deal  with  less  advanced  peoples,  and  as  if  a 
republic  could  live  comfortably  with  a  class  of 
disfranchised  workers.  The  Labor  Department 
declares  it  will  mobilize  for  the  farm  an  army 
of  a  million  boys,  as  if  the  wise  saw,  "boys 
will  be  boys,"  did  not  apply  with  peculiar  sharp- 
ness of  flavor  to  the  American  vintage,  God 
bless  them,  and  as  if  it  were  not  our  plain  duty 
at  this  world  crisis  to  spur  up  rather  than 
check  civilizing  agencies  and  keep  our  boys  in 
school  for  the  full  term. 

Refusing  to  be  in  the  least  crushed  by  gov- 


174      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

eminent  neglect,  far-seeing  women  determined 
to  organize  widely  and  carefully  their  solution 
of  the  farm-labor  problem.  To  this  end  the 
Women's  National  Farm  and  Garden  Associa- 
tion, the  Garden  Clubs  of  America,  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association,  the  Woman's 
Suffrage  Party,  the  New  York  Women's  Uni- 
versity Club,  and  the  Committee  of  the  Women 's 
Agricultural  Camp,  met  with  representatives  of 
the  Grange,  of  the  Cornell  Agricultural  College, 
and  of  the  Farmingdale  State  School  of  Agri- 
culture, and  formed  an  advisory  council,  the 
object  of  which  is  to  "stimulate  the  formation 
of  a  Land  Army  of  Women  to  take  the  places 
on  the  farms  of  the  men  who  are  being  drafted 
for  active  service. ' '  This  is  to  'be  on  a  nation- 
wide scale. 

The  Council  has  put  lecturers  in  the  Granges 
to  bring  to  the  farmer  by  the  spoken  word  and 
lantern  slides  the  value  of  the  labor  of  women, 
and  is  appealing  to  colleges,  seasonal  trades  and 
village  communities  to  form  units  for  the  Land 
Army.  It  is  asking  the  cooperation  of  the  labor 
bureaus  to  act  as  media  through  which  units 
may  be  placed  where  labor  is  most  needed. 

This  mobilization  of  woman-power  is  not  yet 
large  or  striking.  The  effort  is  entirely  civil. 
But  all  the  more  is  it  praiseworthy.  It  shows 


A  LAND  ARMY  175 

on  the  part  of  women,  clear-eyed  recognition  of 
facts  as  they  exist  and  vision  as  to  the  future. 

The  mobilization  of  this  fresh  labor-power 
should  of  course  be  taken  in  hand  by  the  gov- 
ernment. Not  only  that,  it  should  be  led  by 
women  as  in  Great  Britain  and  Germany.  But 
the  spirit  in  America  today  is  the  same  as  in 
England  the  first  year  of  the  war, — a  disposi- 
tion to  exclude  women  from  full  service. 

But  facts  remain  facts  in  spite  of  prejudice, 
and  the  Woman's  Land  Army,  with  faith  and 
enthusiasm  in  lieu  of  a  national  treasury,  are 
endeavoring  to  bring  woman-power  and  the  un- 
tilled  fields  together.  The  proved  achievement 
of  the  individual  worker  will  win  the  employer, 
the  unit  plan  with  its  solution  of  housing  condi- 
tions and  dreary  isolation  will  overcome  not 
only  the  opposition  of  the  farmer's  wife,  but 
that  of  the  intelligent  worker.  When  the  seed 
time  of  the  movement  has  been  lived  through 
by  anxious  and  inspired  women,  the  government 
may  step  in  to  reap  the  harvest  of  a  nation's 
gratitude. 

The  mobilization  of  woman-power  on  the 
farm  is  the  need  of  the  hour,  and  the  wise  and 
devoted  women  who  are  trying  to  answer  the 
need,  deserve  an  all-hail  from  the  people  of 
the  United  States  and  her  Allies. 


XII 

WOMAN'S  PART  IN  SAVING 
CIVILIZATION 

MEN  have  played — all  honor  to  them — the 
major  part  in  the  actual  conflict  of  the 
war.    Women  will  mobilize  for  the  major  part 
of  binding  up  the  wounds  and  conserving  civil- 
ization. 

The  spirit  of  the  world  might  almost  be  sup- 
posed to  have  been  looking  forward  to  this  day 
and  clearly  seeing  its  needs,  so  well  are  women 
being  prepared  to  receive  and  carry  steadily  the 
burden  which  will  be  laid  on  their  shoulders. 
For  three-quarters  of  a  century  schools  and  col- 
leges have  given  to  women  what  they  had  to 
confer  in  the  way  of  discipline.  Gainful  pur- 
suits were  opened  up  to  them,  adding  training 
in  ordered  occupation  and  self-support.  Lastly 
has  come  the  Great  War,  with  its  drill  in  sac- 
rifice and  economy,  its  larger  opportunities  to 
function  and  achieve,  its  ideals  of  democracy 
which  have  directly  and  quickly  led  to  the  politi- 
cal enfranchisement  of  women  in  countries 
widely  separated. 

176 


SAVING  CIVILIZATION  177 

Fate  has  prepared  women  to  share  fully  in  the 
saving  of  civilization. 

Whether  victory  be  ours  in  the  immediate 
future,  or  whether  the  dangers  rising  so  clearly 
on  the  horizon  develop  into  fresh  alignments 
leading  to  years  of  war,  civilization  stands  in 
jeopardy.  Political  ideals  and  ultimate  social 
aims  may  remain  intact,  but  the  immediate, 
practical  maintenance  of  those  standards  of  life 
which  are  necessary  to  ensure  strong  and  fruit- 
ful reactions  are  in  danger  of  being  swept  away. 

We  have  been  destroying  the  life,  the  wealth 
and  beauty  of  the  world.  The  nobility  of  our 
aim  in  the  war  must  not  blind  us  to  the  awful- 
ness  and  the  magnitude  of  the  destruction.  In 
the  fighting  forces  there  are  at  least  thirty-eight 
million  men  involved  in  international  or  civil 
conflict.  Over  four  million  men  have  fallen, 
and  three  million  have  been  maimed  for  life. 
Disease  has  taken  its  toll  of  fighting  strength 
and  economic  power.  In  addition  to  all  this 
human  depletion,  we  have  the  loss  of  life  and 
the  destruction  of  health  and  initiative  in  har- 
ried peoples  madly  flying  across  their  borders 
from  invading  armies. 

Starvation  has  swept  across  wide  areas,  and 
steady  underfeeding  rules  in  every  country  in 
Europe  and  in  the  cities  of  America,  letting 


178      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

loose  malnutrition,  that  hidden  enemy  whose 
ambushes  are  more  serious  than  the  attacks  of 
an  open  foe.  The  world  is  sick. 

And  the  world  is  poor.  The  nations  have 
spent  over  a  hundred  billions  on  the  war,  and 
that  is  but  part  of  the  wealth  which  has  gone 
down  in  the  catastrophe.  Thousands  of  square 
miles  are  plowed  so  deep  with  shot  and  shell 
and  trench  that  the  fertile  soil  lies  buried  be- 
neath unyielding  clay.  Orchards  and  forests 
are  gone.  Villages  are  wiped  out,  cities  are 
but  skeletons  of  themselves.  In  the  face  of  all 
the  need  of  reconstruction  we  must  admit,  how- 
ever much  we  would  wish  to  cover  the  fact, — 
the  world  is  poor. 

And  still,  as  in  no  other  war,  the  will  to  guard 
human  welfare  has  remained  dominant.  The 
country  rose  to  a  woman  in  most  spirited 
fashion  to  combat  the  plan  to  lower  the  stand- 
ards of  labor  conditions  in  the  supposed  in- 
terest of  war  needs.  With  but  few  exceptions 
the  States 'have  strengthened  their  labor  laws. 
In  its  summary  the  American  Association  for 
Labor  Legislation  says : 

"Eleven  States  strengthened  their  child  labor  laws, 
by  raising  age  limits,  extending  restrictions  to  new 
employments,  or  shortening  hours.  Texas  passed  a 


SAVING  CIVILIZATION  179 

new  general  statute  setting  a  fifteen-year  minimum 
age  for  factories  and  Vermont  provided  for  regula- 
tions in  conformity  with  those  of  the  Federal  Child 
Labor  Act.  Kansas  and  New  Hampshire  legislated  on 
factory  safeguards,  Texas  on  fire  escapes,  New  Jersey 
on  scaffolds,  Montana  on  electrical  apparatus,  Dela- 
ware on  sanitary  equipment,  and  West  Virginia  on 
mines.  New  Jersey  forbade  the  manufacture  of  arti- 
cles of  food  or  children's  wear  in  tenements. 

"Workmen's  compensation  laws  were  enacted  in 
Delaware,  Idaho,  New  Mexico,  South  Dakota,  and 
Utah,  making  forty  States  and  Territories  which  now 
have  such  laws,  in  addition  to  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment's compensation  law,  for  its  own  half -million 
civilian  employees.  In  more  than  twenty  additional 
States  existing  acts  were  amended,  the  changes  being 
marked  by  a  tendency  to  extend  the  scope,  shorten  the 
working  period,  and  increase  provision  for  medical 
care." 

The  Great  War,  far  from  checking  the  move- 
ment for  social  welfare,  has  quickened  the  pub- 
lic sense  of  responsibility.  That  fact  opens  the 
widest  field  to  women  for  work  in  which  they 
are  best  prepared  by  nature  and  training. 

Many  keen  thinkers  are  concerned  over  the 
question  of  population.  One  of  our  most  dis- 
tinguished professors  has  thrown  out  a  hint  of 
a  possibility  that  considering  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  women  to  men  some  form  of  plural- 


180     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

i 

ity  of  wives  may  become  necessary.  The  dis- 
turbed balance  of  the  sexes  is  a  thing  that  will 
right  itself  in  one  generation.  Need  of  popu- 
lation will  be  best  answered  by  efforts  to  sal- 
vage the  race.  The  United  States  loses  each 
year  five  hundred  thousand  babies  under  twelve 
months  of  age  from  preventable  causes.  An  ef- 
fort to  save  them  would  seem  more  reasonable 
than  a  demand  for  more  children  to  neglect. 
Life  will  be  so  full  of  drive  and  interest,  that 
the  woman  who  has  given  no  hostages  to  fortune 
will  find  ample  scope  for  her  powers  outside  of 
motherhood.  The  "old  maid"  of  tomorrow 
will  have  a  mission  more  honored  and  impor- 
tant than  was  hers  in  the  past. 

But  whatever  the  conclusions  as  to  the  wisest 
method  of  building  up  population,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  government  and  individuals  will 
make  strict  valuation  of  the  essentials  and  non- 
essentials  in  national  life.  In  our  poverty  we 
will  test  all  things  in  the  light  of  their  benefit 
to  the  race  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good. 

The  opinions  of  women  will  weigh  in  this 
national  accounting.  There  will  be  no  money  to 
squander,  and  women  to  a  unit  will  stand  behind 
those  men  who  think  a  recreation  field  is  of  more 
value  than  a  race  track.  It  will  be  the  woman 's 
view,  there  being  but  one  choice,  that  it  is  better 


SAVING  CIVILIZATION  181 

to  encourage  fleetness  and  skill  in  boys  and  girls 
than  in  horses.  If  we  have  just  so  much  money 
to  spend  and  the  question  arises  as  to  whether 
there  shall  be  corner  saloons  or  municipal 
kitchens,  public  sentiment,  made  in  good  meas- 
ure by  women,  will  eschew  the  saloon. 

The  things  that  lend  themselves  to  the  hus- 
banding of  the  race  will  draw  as  a  magnet 
those  who  have  borne  the  race.  The  tired  world 
will  need  for  its  rejuvenation  a  broadened  and 
deepened  medical  science.  Women  are  too  wise 
to  permit  sanitation  and  research  to  fall  to  a 
low  level.  On  the  contrary,  they  will  wish  them 
to  be  more  thorough.  There  will  be  economy 
along  the  less  essential  lines  to  meet  the  cost. 

The  flagging  spirit  needs  the  inspiration  of 
art  and  music.  To  secure  them  in  the  future, 
state  and  municipal  effort  will  be  demanded. 
Women  are  born  economizers.  They  have  been 
trained  to  pinch  each  penny.  With  their  advent 
into  political  life,  roads  and  public  buildings 
will  cost  less.  Through  careful  saving,  funds 
will  be  made  available  for  the  things  of  the 
spirit. 

One  of  the  men  conductors  on  the  New  York 
street  railways  somewhat  reproachfully  re- 
marked to  me, ' '  No  one  ever  came  to  look  at  the 
recreation  room  and  restaurant  at  the  car  barns 


182      MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

until  women  were  taken  on.  Men  don't  seem 
to  count."  Is  the  reproach  deserved?  Have 
women  been  narrow  in  sympathy?  Perhaps 
we  have  assumed  that  men  can  look  out  for 
themselves.  They  could,  but  in  private  life  they 
never  do.  Women  have  to  do  the  mothering. 
A  trade-unionist  is  ready  enough  to  regulate 
wages  and  hours,  but  he  gives  not  a  thought  to 
surroundings  in  factory  and  workshop. 

An  act  of  protection  generally  starts  with 
solicitude  about  a  woman  or  child.  Factory 
legislation  took  root  in  their  needs.  There  was 
no  mercy  for  the  man  worker.  His  only  chance 
of  getting  better  conditions  was  when  women 
entered  his  occupation,  and  the  regulation  meant 
for  her  benefit  indirectly  served  his  interest. 

"Men  suffer  more  than  women  in  certain 
dangerous  trades,  but  I  did  not  suppose  you 
were  generous  enough  to  care  anything  about 
them, ' '  came  in  answer  to  an  inquiry  at  a  labor 
conference  at  the  end  of  a  most  admirable  paper 
on  women  in  dangerous  trades,  given  by  one  of 
the  doctors  in  the  New  York  City  Department 
of  Health.  He  was  speaking  to  an  audience  of 
working  women.  I  doubt  if  his  hearers  had 
given  a  thought  to  men  workers. 

Perhaps  this  is  natural,  since  there  has  been 
going  on  at  the  same  time  with  the  development 


SAVING  CIVILIZATION  183 

of  factory  legislation  in  America  a  strong  prop- 
aganda directed  especially  at  political  freedom 
for  women.  We  have  been  laying  stress  on  the 
wrongs  of  woman  and  demanding  very  persist- 
ently and  convincingly  her  rights.  The  indus- 
trial needs  and  rights  of  the  man  have  been 
overlooked. 

With  increasing  numbers  of  women  entering 
the  industrial  world,  with  ever  widening  exten- 
sion of  the  vote  to  women,  and  the  consequent 
quickening  of  public  responsibility,  together 
with  the  recent  experience  of  Europe  demon- 
strating the  importance  of  care  for  all  workers, 
both  men  and  women,  there  is  ground  for  hope 
that  even  the  United  States,  where  protective 
legislation  is  so  retarded  in  development,  will 
enter  upon  wide  and  fundamental  plans  for  con- 
servation of  all  our  human  resources. 

Protection  of  the  worker,  housing  conditions, 
the  feeding  of  factory  employees  and  school 
children,  play  grounds  and  recreation  centers, 
will  challenge  the  world  for  first  consideration. 
These  are  the  social  processes  which  command 
most  surely  the  hearts  and  minds  of  women. 
The  churning  which  the  war  has  given  human- 
ity has  roused  in  women  a  realization  that  upon 
them  rests  at  least  half  the  burden  of  saving 
civilization  from  wreck. 


184     MOBILIZING  WOMAN-POWER 

Here  is  the  world,  with  such  and  such  needs 
for  food,  clothing,  shelter,  with  such  and  such 
needs  for  sanitation,  hospitals,  and  above  all, 
for  education,  for  science,  for  the  arts,  if  it  is 
not  to  fall  back  into  the  conditions  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  How  can  women  aid  in  making  secure 
the  national  position?  Certainly  not  by  idle- 
ness, inefficiency,  an  easy  policy  of  laissez  faire. 
They  must  labor,  economize,  and  pool  their 
brains. 

Women  can  save  civilization  only  by  the 
broadest  cooperative  action,  by  daring  to  think, 
by  daring  to  be  themselves.  The  world  is  en- 
tering an  heroic  age  calling  for  heroic  women. 


APPENDIX 

DOCUMENTS  USED  IN  WOMEN'S  WAR- WORK  IN 
ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE 


o 


R 


KDMENSARMY 

AUXILIARY 

CORPS 


CONFIDENTIAL.  Rafawie* "  No. ',:   J.W.  2t? 

Joint  Women's   V.A.D.  Department. 

DEVONSHIRE   HOUSE.   PICCADILLY.   LONDON.   W.I. 

Territorial  Fore*  Auociationi. 
Red  Crou  £ 
it.  John  of 


2J.R.CS.  or  Onkr  tf  St.  /tin, 

BIB, 

Will  yon  kindly  611  op  the  following  form  of  Medical  Certificate,  returning 
it  to  the  address  given  above. 

Your  communication  will  be  received  as  strictly  confidential. 

It  Is  urgently  requested  that  Members'        Yours  faithfully, 

names  and  detachment  numbers  should 

be  filled  In  legibly.  MABGABET  AMPTHILL. 

MEDICAL  CERTIFICATE 

1.  Name 

2.  County No.  of   Detachment 

3.  How  long  have  you  been  acquainted  with  her?    

4.  Have  you  attended  her  professionally? 

5.  For  what  complaint? 

6.  Is  she  intelligent  and  of  active  habits? 

7.  General  health  ? 

8.  Has  she  flat  feet,  hammer-toe,  or  any  other  defect? 

9.  Is  her  vision  good  in  each  eye? 

10.  Is  her  hearing  perfect? 

11.  Has  she  sound  teeth,  and  if  not,  have  they  been  properly 

attended  to  by  a  Dentist  lately? 

12.  Has   she  shown   any  tendency  to   Rheumatism,  Anaemia, 

Tuberculosis,  or  other  illness? 

13.  When? 

14.  What? 

15.  Has  she  ever  had  influenza? 

16.  Does  she  suffer  from  headaches? 

17.  Any  form  of  fits? 

18.  Heart  disease  or  varicose  veins? 

19.  Is  she  subject  to  any  functional  disturbance? 


I  have  on  the  day  of  191      seen  and 

examined  and 

hereby  certify  that  she  is  apparently  in  good  health,  that  she 
is  not  labouring  under  any  deformity,  and  is,  in  my  opinion, 
both  physically  and  mentally  competent  to  undertake  duty  in 
a  Military  Hospital,  and  is  *  A.  Fit  for  General  Service. 

B.  Fit  for  Home  Service  only. 

C.  Unfit. 
Date                                              (Signed) 

Address 

*  Kindly  delete  categories  which  do  not  apply. 
187 


Reference   No.!     J.W.     t9o. 

JOINT    WOMEN'S    V.A.D.    DEPARTMENT. 

Taritorid  F.r«  AnocUtioni.    Brltiii  lUd  Creu  SOO«T.   Ord«r  «f  SUobnoJ  Jtnuiat 
DEVONSHIRE    HOUSE,  PICCADILLY,   LONDON.  W.I. 

QUALIFICATIONS 

«f  lUmkri  of  WMM'I  Volmrtiry  Aid  D^aduMti  for  Noruf  Svrfc*  «  Coenl  Swria. 


1.  (a)   Name  in  full   (Mrs.  or  Miss). 
(b)   If  Married  state  Maiden  Name. 

2.  Permanent  Postal  Address. 
Present  Postal  Address. 

3.  Telephone  No. 

4.  Telegraphic  Address. 

5.  Detachment  County  and  No. 

B.R.C.S. 

St.  John  Brigade. 

St.  John  Association. 

8.  Name  and  Address  of  Commandant  of  Detachment. 

7.  Rank  in  Detachment. 

8.  Time  of  Service  in  Detachment. 

9.  Age  and  Date  of  Birth. 

10.  Place  and  Country  of  Birth. 

11.  Nationality  at  Birth. 

12.  Present  Nationality. 

13.  Height. 

14.  Weight. 

15.  Where  Educated. 

16.  At  what 'age  did  you  leave  school? 

17.  Whether  Single,  Married,  or  Widow. 

18.  If  not  Single,  state  Nationality  of  Husband. 

19.  Name  and  Address  of  Next-of-Kin  or  Nearest  Relation 

residing  in  the  British  Isles. 

20.  Father's  Nationality  at  Birth. 

21.  Mother's  Nationality  at  Birth. 

22.  Father's  Profession. 

188 


23.  Religion. 

24.  (a)   If  you  volunteer  for  nursing  duties  state  what  ex- 

perience you  have  had  in  wards. 

(b)  Name  and  address  of  hospital. 

(c)  Date. 

25.  Certificates  held. 

26.  (a)   Nursing.  (f)  Motor  Driver. 

(b)  Kitchen.  (g)  Laboratory  Attendant. 

(c)  Clerical.  (h)  X-Ray  Attendant. 

(d)  Storekeeping.  (i)  House  Work. 

(e)  Dispenser.  (j)  Pantry  Work. 

27.  State  what  experience  and  qualifications  you  have  had 

for  Categories  in  No.  26. 

28.  Have  you  been  inoculated  against  Enteric  Fever? 

If  so,  what  date? 

If  not,  are  you  willing  to  be? 

Have  you  been  vaccinated? 
If  so,  what  date? 
If  not,  are  you  willing  to  be? 

29.  Your  usual  Occupation  or  Profession? 
Your  present  Occupation  or  Profession? 

30.  Give  the  Names  and  Addresses  of  two  British  Household- 

ers with  permanent  addresses  in  the  British  Isles  who 
have  known  applicant  for  two  or  more  years,  but  are 
not  related  to  applicant,  to  act  as  References,  having 
previously  obtained  their  permission  to  use  their 
names. 

(a)  (Mayor,  Magistrate,  Justice  of 
the   Peace,   Minister   of   Religion, 
Barrister,  Physician,  Solicitor  or 
Notary  Public). 

Acquaintance  dating  from  year 

(b)  Lady. 

Acquaintance  dating  from  year 

31.  Name  and  Address  of  Head  of  College  or  School,  recent 

Business  Employer,  Head  of  Government  Department, 
Secretary  of  Society  or  some  other  person  who  can  be 
referred  to  for  a  report  on  your  qualifications  for 
the  work  selected.  (The  Quartermaster  of  your 
V.A.D.  could  be  given  if  you  have  worked  in  her  de- 
partment. ) 

In  what  capacity  employed? 
189 


How  long  employed? 
Year? 

32.  Are  you  willing  to  serve  at  home  or  abroad? 

33.  Are  you  willing  to  serve  in  Civil  Hospitals  from  which 

personnel  have  been  withdrawn  for  War  Service? 

34.  Are  you  willing  to  serve: — 

(a)  With  pay, 

(b)  For  expenses  only, 

on  the  terms  of  service  laid  down  in  our  terms  of 
service  ? 

N.  B. — Members  who   can  afford  to  work   for   their   ex- 
penses only  are  urgently  needed. 

35.  Date  after  which  you  will  be  available  for  duty. 

36.  (a)  Are  you  pledged  to  serve  in  any  other  organisation? 
(b)   If  so,  what? 

37.  (a)   Have  you  served  with  the  Women's  Legion  or  any 

similar  organisation? 
(b)  If  so,  what? 

I  hereby  declare  that  the  above  statements  are  complete 
and  correct  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief. 

Date    Usual  Signature    

For  Office  Purposes,   please  add  your   full   Christian  Names 
and  Surname  legibly  written. 

I  certify  that  the  above  declaration  is,  to  the  best  of  my 

knowledge  and  belief,  true ;  and  that  M 

is  a  fit  and  proper  person  to  be  employed  by  the  Joint  V.A.D. 
Committee. 

REMARKS:— 

Date    Signed    

Commandant. 

Date   Countersigned   

County  Director. 

NOTE. — Commandants  are  held  responsible  for  all  state- 
ments on  this  form  being  accurate  so  far  as  it  is  possible  for 
them  to  find  out,  also  for  the  fact  that  the  member  who  signs 
it  is  a  British  subject,  and  in  every  way  suitable  for  appoint- 
ment by  the  Joint  V.A.D.  Committee. 

This  form  must  be  signed  by  the  Commandant,  who  should 
then  send  it  to  the  County  Director  for  counter  signature  and 
forwarding  io  Headquarters. 

190 


Application  No. 
For  Official  use  only. 

CONFIDENTIAL. 

WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS 
FORM  OF  APPLICATION 

N.  B. — No  woman  need  apply  who  is  not  prepared  to  offer  her 
services  for  the  duration  of  the  war  and  to  take  up  work 
wherever  she  is  required. 

1.  Name  in  Full  (Mrs.  or  Miss). 

2.  Permanent  Postal  Address, 

2a.  State  nearest  Railway  Station. 

3.  Surname  at  birth,  if  different. 

4.  For  what  work  do  you  offer  your  services?     State  your 

qualifications  for  this  work.  (The  occupations  for 
which  women  are  required  are  set  out  in  the  accom- 
panying leaflet.) 

5.  Are  you  willing  to  serve: — 

(a)  At  Home  and  Abroad  as  may  be  required. 

(b)  At  Home  only. 

6.  If  selected  and  enrolled  how  many  days'  notice  will  you 

require  before  your  services  are  available? 

7.  Age  and  date  of  birth. 

8.  Place  and  Country  of  Birth. 

9.  Nationality  at  Birth. 

10.  Present  Nationality 

(if  naturalised  give  date). 

11.  Whether  single,  married  or  widow. 
If  married  state  number  of  children, 

(a)  under  12  years  old. 

(b)  "        5       "       " 

191 


12.  If  not  single  state  Nationality  of  Husband. 

(a)  Is  your  husband  serving  with  the  Forces? 
(6)  If  so,  where? 

13.  Father's  Nationality  at  Birth. 

14.  Mother's  Nationality  at  Birth. 

15.  Father's  Occupation. 

16.  State  school  or  college  where  educated. 
At  what  age  did  you  leave  School? 

17.  Particulars   of   any  other   Training,   stating  Certificates 

held. 

18.  (a)   Name  and  Address  of  your  present  employer    (see 

Vote  on  other  side), 

N.  B. —  ( The  employer  will  not  be  referred  to  un- 
less he  is  given  as  a  reference  under  paragraph 
20  below.) 

(6)  Nature  of  his  business. 

(c)  Capacity  in  which  you  are  employed. 

(d)  Length  of  your  service  with  him. 

(e)  Salary  which  you  are  now  receiving, 

19.  Previous    business    experience     (if    any)     giving    dates, 

salaries  received,  and  names  of  Employers. 

20.  Give  below  for  purposes  of  reference  the  names  of  two 

or  more  British  householders  with  their  permanent 
addresses,  one  of  whom  should  be,  if  possible,  your 
present  or  previous  Employer,  a  Teacher,  a  Town 
Councillor,  Mayor  or  Provost,  Justice  of  Peace,  Min- 
ister of  Religion,  Doctor  or  Solicitor,  who  has  known 
you  for  two  or  more  years,  but  is  not  related  to  you. 
One  of  the  references  must  be  a  woman. 

V 

(a)  Name. 

Profession  or  Occupation. 
Address. 

192 


(6)  Name. 

Profession  or  Occupation. 
Address. 

(c)   Name. 

Profession  or  Occupation. 
Address. 

An  offer  of  Service  can  in  no  way  be  regarded  as  a  final 
enrolment. 

/   hereby   declare   that   the  above  statements  are  complete 
and  correct  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and  belief. 


Date    Usual  Signature 


This  Form  should  be  filled  in  by  the  Applicant  and  returned 
to :  —  Employment   Exchange    


NOTE, 

Women  who  are  already  engaged  in  any  of  the  following 
occupations  will  not  be  accepted  unless  they  bring  with  them 
a  letter  from  their  Employer  or  Head  of  Department  stating 
that  they  have  permission  to  volunteer: — 

(i)   Government  Service, 
(ii)   Munition  work, 
(iii)   Work  in  a  Controlled  Establishment. 

(iv)   Full-time  work  in  an  establishment  engaged  on  con- 
tract work  for  a  Government  Department. 

(v)   V.A.D.  Military  Hospitals  and  Red  Cross  Hospitals. 
(vi)   School  Teaching, 
(vii)   Local  Government  Service. 

No  woman  who  is  a  National  Service  Volunteer  or  is 
employed  in  Agriculture  will  be  accepted. 

N.  B. — Applicants  are  urged  not  to  give  up  any  present  em- 
ployment until  they  are  called  upon  to  do  so. 
193 


(Filing    card    for    fivacues    Alsaciens-Lorrains,    used    by    the 
Conseil  National  des  Femmes  Frangaises.) 


NOM  :..... 

Pr^noms  : 

Adresse  avant  la  guerre  : 


Indications  diverses  : 


Renseigt  demande"  par  la  voie  de 

par  M   

Adresse  avant  la  guerre  :    


Adresse   actuelle  : 


rien  6crire  ci-dessous.     Partie  r6serv6e  &  la  recherche. 


Source  :     >  . . 

194 


(Part  of  the  application  form  used  in  England  by  the 
Women's  Land  Army.) 

WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY 


CONDITIONS  AND  TERMS. 


There  are  three  Sections  of  the  Women's  Land  Army. 
(1).    AGRICULTURE. 
(2).    TIMBER  CUTTING. 
(3).    FORAGE. 

If  you  sign  on  for  A  YEAR  and  are  prepared  to  go 

wherever  you  are  sent,  you  can  join  which 

Section  you  like. 

YOU  PROMISE:  — 

1.  To  sign  on  in  the  Land  Army  for  ONE  YEAR. 

2.  To  come  to  a  Selection  Board  when  summoned. 

3.  To  be  medically  examined,  free  of  cost. 

4.  To  be  prepared  if  PASSED  by  the  Selection  Board  to  take 

up  work  after  due  notice. 

5.  TO  BE  WILLING  TO  GO  TO  WHATEVER  PART  OP  THE 

COUNTRY  YOU  ARE  SENT. 

THE  GOVERNMENT  PROMISES:  — 

1.  A  MINIMUM  WAGE  to  workers  of   18/-  a  week.     After 

they  have  passed  an  efficiency  test  the  wages  given  are 
f  1  a  week  and  upwards. 

2.  A  short  course  of  FREE  INSTRUCTION  if  necessary. 

3.  FREE  UNIFORM. 

4.  FREE  MAINTENANCE  in  a   DepOt   for   a   term   not   ex- 

ceeding 4  weeks  if  the  worker   is   OUT   OF   EMPLOY- 
MENT through  no  fault  of  her  own. 

5.  FREE  RAILWAY  travelling,  when  taking  up  or  changing 

Employment. 

195 


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